Posmysz achieved international acclaim after her radio play The Passenger from Cabin 45 and the novel Passenger became the basis for a film script of the highly acclaimed Polish feature film The Passenger in the 1960s and subsequently for a libretto of Mieczysław Weinberg’s opera of the same title.
Written in 1968, the opera had its world premiere at the Bregenz Festival in Austria in 2010, and was later staged in many venues, including Warsaw, London, Madrid, Berlin, Chicago and New York.
Posmysz was a guest of honour at several of these premieres.
Posmysz was a prisoner of Auschwitz from May 1942 to January 18, 1945, when she was evacuated to the camps of Ravensbrück and Neustadt-Glewe.
After the war, she studied at the University of Warsaw and worked for many years for Polish Radio’s cultural section.
In addition to The Passenger, which has been translated into 15 languages, she wrote several novels.
She was a frequent visitor to the site of the former Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz, particularly to the International Youth Meeting Centre, where she attended meetings with young people from various countries.
In 2006, she was among a group of former prisoners who welcomed Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Auschwitz.
In 2020, she received the Order of the White Eagle, the highest Polish state distinction.
(mk/gs)