Ruth Posner, 96, and her husband Michael, 97, sent an email to loved ones saying they’d “shuffled off this mortal coil” after travelling to a Swiss Dignitas clinic because they did not want to leave each other behind
A devoted couple who ‘couldn’t bear to be apart’ passed away at a Swiss assisted dying clinic after sending emails to their beloved relatives to tell them they had done so.
Neither Michael Posner, 97, nor his wife Ruth, 96, had a terminal illness, but had made the decision to die together because they were desperate not to be apart after 75 years of marriage.
The couple, from Belsize Park in north London, sent a message to their “Dear family and friends” on Tuesday, detailing their passing. The email read: “So sorry not to have mentioned it but when you receive this email we will have ‘shuffled off this mortal coil’.
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“The decision was mutual and without any outside pressure. 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, our son. 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.”
Ruth, who had survived the horrors of the holocaust, received a tribute in a Campaign Against Antisemitism statement that was issued on Thursday. It read: “We are heartbroken to learn of the passing of Ruth Posner BEM, Holocaust survivor and educator, and her husband Michael.
“Thank you, Ruth. You were an inspiration and a shining example of how to use one’s voice for good in this world. You will be greatly missed. May their memories be a blessing.”
Chief Executive of The Holocaust Educational Trust, Karen Pollock CBE, added: “Ruth was an extraordinary woman. She survived the Radom Ghetto, slave labour and life in hiding under a false identity. By the end of the war, Ruth and her aunt were the only surviving members of her family.
“After a dazzling career in theatre and dance, Ruth decided to begin sharing her testimony as a response to rising levels of antisemitism in the UK. 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.
“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.”
Ms Posner arrived in the UK aged 16 after using a fake passport to escape the Warsaw ghetto. In the three years she spent on the run, she posed as a Catholic school student as the rest of her family were being killed in the Treblinka extermination camp.
She didn’t speak any English when she arrived in the country, but set out on a career in dance, enrolling at the London Contemporary Dance Theatre.
She eventually gained membership at the Royal Shakespeare Company after studying theatre arts at Hunter College in New York.
Ruth gained acclaim for a number of roles, including Leon The Pig Farmer and Love Hurts, and also featured in Casualty and The Ruth Rendell Mysteries
In 1950, she married British national Michael, with whome she travelled the world thanks to his jet-setting career as a chemist.