A Holocaust survivor who went on to become a successful actress and educator has died alongside her husband in Switzerland.
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Ruth Posner and her husband Michael posthumously revealed to friends and family on on Sept. 23 that they had chosen to end their lives through assisted suicide, also known as Voluntary Assisted Dying. The Times published the announcement, only noting the couple passed away in an unnamed medical clinic in Switzerland.
Ruth was 96, and Michael was 97. They cited their declining health as the reason for the choice, affirming that this was a mutual decision they made of sound mind.
“So sorry not to have mentioned it but when you receive this email we will have ‘shuffled off this mortal coil,'” the couple’s email read. “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.”
The late couple signed off the letter with “Much love Ruth & Mike.”
According to Pegasos Swiss Association, a VAD organization, Switzerland allows assisted suicide as long as the patients have “decision-making capacity” and if they “have ‘control’ or ‘ownership of the action’ over their death.” Those involved in the VAD process must not have “selfish” motives for assisting.
Alongside her aunt, Ruth fled Warsaw, Poland, as a child during the Holocaust. Posner, whose father was Jewish, pretended to be Catholic to survive, eventually winding up in a German prison camp, avoiding being sent to a concentration camp. Her parents are believed to have died in the Treblinka extermination camp.
After Word War II, Ruth moved to England, where she went on to become a successful actress in the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as several TV and film productions. she would also instruct at prestigious institutions like Juilliard School and London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
Several other arts and entertainment professionals have chosen VAD in recent years. Mark Fleischman, former owner of Studio 54, died by assisted suicide at a Swiss clinic in 2022. Comedian Geraldine Doyle, who was ill with cancer, opted to die by Australia’s dying with dignity process in May 2024. Singer Barbara Dane chose California’s medical aid in dying process in October 2024 due to heart failure.