Holocaust survivor and husband emailed friends about deaths at Swiss clinic

A Holocaust survivor and her husband who told loved ones in an email that they had taken their own lives in a Swiss clinic had “had enough” and did not want to “just exist”, a friend has said.

Actress Ruth Posner and her husband Michael, both aged in their 90s, are believed to have died last weekend in the Pegasos clinic in Basel.

Mrs Posner had escaped a Ghetto in Warsaw and arrived in the UK as a teenager, having lost most of her family in a concentration camp in the Second World War.

She met her husband Michael, a Jewish chemist who was born in Belfast, at a dance in London and they went on to spend almost 75 years together.

In an email to loved ones this week, first reported by The Times newspaper, they told the recipients: “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.”

Close friend Sonja Linden, a playwright who worked with Mrs Posner during her acting career, said the pair had told the email recipients how they had enjoyed their life together, apart from the great sadness of losing their son when he was aged in his 30s.

They are believed to be survived by a grandson.

Speaking to the PA news agency, Ms Linden said of Mrs Posner: “She felt increasingly, every time I visited her over the last year, she said ‘we’ve had enough, we’re ready to go, we don’t want to just exist. And that’s what we’re doing, we’re just existing at the moment’.”

She described Mrs Posner as having been “the most vibrant, amazing woman” and Michael as a “remarkable, clever, intellectual man”.

Mr Posner had attended Queen’s University in Belfast before qualifying as a chemist, and the pair went on to live in various countries around the world before spending their later years in north London.

Ms Linden said while she was “very sad” at her friends’ deaths, she understood why they had taken the decision.

She added: “I completely endorse their decision but it was still weird to receive that email, written in her style. It was clearly from her and had been pre-written.”

Ms Linden said Mrs Posner had been in favour of a law change to legalise assisted dying in England.

She said: “She wouldn’t have had to make those arrangements, had to travel, she could’ve said goodbye more publicly.”

While a draft law is being considered at Westminster to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales, it would apply only to terminally ill adults with fewer than six months to live.

It is understood neither of the Posners were terminally ill.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), said it was “heartbroken” to hear of the pair’s passing.

The group said Mrs Posner had spoken “publicly of her experiences during the Holocaust, educating future generations and never shying away from taking part in the fight against antisemitism”.

They described her as “an inspiration and a shining example of how to use one’s voice for good in this world”.