By Megan Howe

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A Holocaust survivor announced in an email to her family that she and her husband had chosen to end their lives at a Swiss suicide clinic, unable to bear the thought of being separated after 75 years together.

Ruth Posner, 96, and her husband Michael, 97, told family members in an email that by the time the message was read, they would have “shuffled off this mortal coil.”

They explained that, although neither was suffering from a terminal illness, their declining health had left them feeling that they were no longer truly living, but merely existing.

“Dear family and friends’ they wrote on Tuesday.

“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. 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.”

Born in Warsaw, Poland, Ruth Posner was a Holocaust survivor, dancer, choreographer, and actress who later became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

At just nine years old, she made a life-or-death decision to escape the Warsaw Ghetto using a falsified passport. She spent three years on the run with her aunt, posing as a Catholic schoolgirl.

Tragically, the rest of her family were killed at the Treblinka extermination camp.

Ruth arrived in the UK at the age of 16, speaking no English. Undeterred, she began training as a dancer and later enrolled at the London Contemporary Dance Theatre.

She eventually moved to New York to study theatre arts at Hunter College before returning to the UK, where she earned a place in the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company.

Ruth married her husband Michael in 1950 and together they had one son, who died at the age of 37.

Ruth was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to Holocaust education and awareness.

The couple are survived by a grandson.

Paying tribute to Ruth, Chief Executive of The Holocaust Educational Trust, Karen Pollock CBE, said: “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.”

Sonja Linden, a playwright and artistic director who knew the couple for 30 years, told The Times Ruth was “frail” and her husband had macular degeneration and poor hearing, but both were “intellectually very well” with no serious illnesses.

“This was a decision they made together some time ago that they wanted to die together,” she said.

“They made an arrangement to go to Switzerland a year ago. We did not know they had actually gone until we received the email, which is sad as we wanted to say goodbye,” she added.

Linden told the newspaper that the Dignitas clinic in Zurich was unable to assist the couple, as they did not have a doctor’s confirmation that they had less than six months to live. Instead, they turned to the Pegasos clinic near Basel.