It is with great sadness and gratitude that Auschwitz survivors will be commemorating the life of the author Zofia Posmysz tomorrow, on 23 August. Their friend and fellow sufferer was born 100 years ago in Kraków. She died last year on 8 August 2022, just a few weeks before her 100th birthday in a hospice belonging to the Polish city of Oswiecim/Auschwitz.

In Berlin, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, paid tribute to Zofia Posmysz:

"During her lifetime Zofia Posmysz was inundated with honours and awards from many states. But for her, the most important honour and the purpose of her life after Auschwitz was to give a voice over the years to all of those who were murdered in Auschwitz.

As a Polish Catholic she consistently sought to join in exchanges with young people at the International Youth Meeting Center in Oswiecim/Auschwitz right up to the last weeks of her life. Her internationally acclaimed novel Passenger describes life after Auschwitz and the confrontation with the perpetrators. The Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg created an opera of the same name based on her novel. Together with her books, the opera transports Zofia Posmysz’s memories through to the future. Preparations are under way for a new production of the opera in January and March 2024 at the State Theatre in Mainz and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. The voice of Zofia Posmysz will remain with us forever."