Holocaust Survivor Ruth Posner and Husband Die by Assisted Suicide, Send Email to Friends: ‘Not Living but Existing’

A renowned Holocaust survivor and her husband ended their lives through assisted suicide, revealing their decision to loved ones only in an email sent after their deaths.

Ruth Posner was a child when she escaped the Treblinka concentration camp in Poland with her aunt. After three years on the run, she settled in the United Kingdom, later becoming an accomplished actress, dancer, author, and Holocaust educator. In 1950, she married her husband, Michael Posner. The couple endured tragedy in 1998 when their only child, Jeremy, died at 37 while recovering from heroin addiction.

On September 23, Ruth, 96, and Michael, 97, ended their lives together. According to The Times, they informed friends and family in a farewell email that read, “So sorry not to have mentioned it, but when you receive this email we will have shuffled off this mortal coil.”

“The decision was mutual and without any outside pressure,” they wrote. “We had lived a long life and together for almost 75 years. There came a point when failing senses of sight and hearing and lack of energy was not living but existing — that no care would improve. We had an interesting and varied life and, except for the sorrow of losing Jeremy, we enjoyed our time together. We tried not to regret the past, live in the present, and not to expect too much from the future. Much love, Ruth & Mike.”

Although neither suffered from a terminal illness, the couple reportedly wanted to die side by side. They traveled from their home in London to a clinic in Basel, Switzerland, operated by Pegasos, an assisted-dying nonprofit organization.

Assisted suicide has been legal in Switzerland since 1942, according to Dignity in Dying, a British organization. It differs from euthanasia — which remains illegal — because patients administer the life-ending medication themselves, without a doctor’s direct involvement.

Sonja Linden, a playwright who knew the couple for three decades, told The Times that Ruth had become “frail,” while Michael struggled with vision and hearing loss, though both “remained intellectually very well.”

“This was a decision they made together some time ago,” Linden said. “They arranged to go to Switzerland a year ago. We didn’t know they had actually gone until we received the email, which was sad because we wanted to say goodbye.”

“They had such a lovely flat packed with art and books, and I can’t imagine them not being there,” she added. Linden described the couple as “exhausted” and ready to go. “They thought this was a positive decision and it helped them in their later life. I did not try to stop them. I understood and supported their decision, but it was still a shock to receive the email.”

Following her death, the Holocaust Educational Trust paid tribute to Posner, calling her “an extraordinary woman.”

“Although then in her eighties, she made it her mission to speak to as many young people as possible about her experiences during the Holocaust,” said Karen Pollock, the charity’s chief executive. “She hoped that the leaders of tomorrow would learn the lessons of the past. Ruth was one of a kind. Full of charisma and warmth, she left an impression on everyone she met. We will miss her.”