She was “a translator of the feelings and memories of many survivors”: Auschwitz survivor Zofia Posmysz-Piasecka died at the age of 98. She became internationally known through the radio play “Die Passenger”.
Polish author and Auschwitz survivor Zofia Posmysz-Piasecka has died at the age of 98. This was announced by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial on Twitter. The International Auschwitz Committee paid tribute to the writer and eyewitness.
“For Auschwitz survivors, it was always a great comfort that the voice of Zofia Posmysz could be heard around the world,” said Christoph Heubner, the committee’s executive vice president. With her literary works she was “a translator of the feelings and memories of many survivors”.
The Polish TV news channel TVN24 reported online, citing the city administration of Auschwitz (Oswiecim), that Zofia Posmysz died in the city’s hospice in the morning. The writer and screenwriter was also an honorary citizen of the city.
At the age of 18, Posmysz was arrested in 1942 when she was distributing leaflets for the Polish resistance in her hometown of Kraków. After two and a half years in Auschwitz she was deported to Ravensbrück. There, as a 21-year-old woman, she experienced the liberation on May 2, 1945.
After her return to Poland she worked, among other things, for the Polish radio. She became internationally known through her radio play “The Passenger”, which was also published in German. The work is about the reunion of an Auschwitz survivor with her former concentration camp guard during a ship voyage. The radio play served as a model for a film and an opera.
