Zofia Posmysz

Zofia Posmysz-Piasecka (; 23 August 1923 – 8 August 2022) was a Polish journalist, novelist, and author. She was a resistance fighter in World War II and survived imprisonment at the Auschwitz and Ravensbrück concentration camps. Her autobiographical account of the Holocaust in occupied Poland, Passenger from Cabin 45, became the basis for her 1962 novel Passenger, subsequently translated into 15 languages. The original radio drama was adapted for an award-winning feature film, while the novel was adapted into an opera of the same name with music by Mieczysław Weinberg.

Early life Posmysz was born in Kraków and lived there until the invasion of Poland in 1939. During the occupation she attended clandestine courses and worked at a cable factory. She was arrested by the Gestapo in 1942, at age 18, Relegated to arduous work at a penal company in Budy, she was saved twice by the camp doctor, Janusz Mąkowski. On 18 January 1945, Posmysz (prisoner number 7566) was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp and from there to the Neustadt-Glewe satellite camp, where she was liberated on 2 May 1945 by the US Army.

Postwar life After World War II, she studied at the University of Warsaw, and worked for the broadcaster Polskie Radio in the culture section. In 1959, she wrote a radio drama, Pasażerka z kabiny 45 (Passenger from Cabin 45), based on her memories from the time spent in Nazi concentration camps. featuring Aleksandra Śląska and Jan Świderski. It was adapted for television by Posmysz in 1960. The show was directed by Andrzej Munk and featured Ryszarda Hanin, Zofia Mrozowska, and Edward Dziewoński in the leading roles. The Passenger from Cabin 45 was innovative and unusual in the genre of Holocaust literature, because it depicted a loyal SS Aufseherin, Annelise Franz, in charge of Posmysz's work detail at Auschwitz, who nevertheless exhibited basic human behaviour towards prisoners.

The screenplay for the film was written by both Posmysz and Munk in 1961. Munk died in a car crash soon thereafter. Posmysz did not participate in the making of the film, which was released in 1963. Instead, she focused on writing a novel derived from her autobiographical memory.

When Pope Benedict XVI visited the memorial for Auschwitz in 2006, she was among the surviving inmates greeting him.

Posmysz died in Oświęcim on 8 August 2022, at the age of 98.

Work and legacy Posmysz went on writing continuously for over 30 years and wrote her last published book at the age of 73. She is best known for her 1959 autobiography Passenger in Cabin 45 (Pasażerka z kabiny 45) which led to a television play and film The Passenger by Andrzej Munk, who was one of the most influential artists of the post-Stalinist Poland. and first released in 1963. The novel by Posmysz became the basis of the libretto by Alexander Medvedev for Mieczysław Weinberg's 1968 opera The Passenger, Op. 97. Suppressed for more than 40 years, it was first staged at Bregenz Festival on 21 July 2010, followed by the same production at the Grand Theatre in Warsaw. The opera by Weinberg premièred at the Lyric Opera of Chicago on 24 February 2015, with soprano Amanda Majeski as Marta. Die Passagierin was staged by the Frankfurt Opera in March 2015 with Leo Hussain conducting.

The novel Pasażerka was translated into 15 languages, including German as Die Passagierin by Peter Ball, published in 1969 by and as Book on demand (third ed.) in 2010.

Works A selection of works by Posmysz, published in Polish, includes: I know the executioners from Belsen... (Znam katów z Belsen…; 1945) Passenger from cabin 45 (Pasażerka z kabiny 45; 1959) The sick hawthorn (Cierpkie głogi; screenplay, 1966) Little (Mały; screenplay, 1970) Microclimate (Mikroklimat; 1975) A Tree Similar to Another Tree (Drzewo do drzewa podobne; 1977) Price (Cena; 1978) The Same Doctor M (Ten sam doktor M; 1981) Widows and lovers (Wdowa i kochankowie; 1988) To freedom, to death, to life (Do wolności, do śmierci, do życia; 1996)

Awards 1964: Knight of the Order of Polonia Restituta 1970: Officer of the Order of Polonia Restituta 1976: Prize of the Polish Radio and Television Committee for Outstanding Achievements in the Field of Radio Drama 2007: Witold Hulewicz Prize 2008: Prize of Poland's Minister of Culture for Outstanding Achievements in the Cultural Heritage Field 2012: Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 2015: DIALOG Prize of the Deutsch-Polnische Gesellschaft Bundesverband 2020: Order of the White Eagle (Poland)