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Medal bearer in Poland: Zofia Posmysz
Photo: Hubert Mathis / imago images/ZUMA Wire
Polish author and Auschwitz survivor Zofia Posmysz-Piasecka died on Monday 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".
Polish TV news channel TVN24 reported online, citing the Auschwitz (Oświęcim) city administration, that Zofia Posmysz died on Monday morning in the city's hospice.
The writer and screenwriter was also an honorary citizen of the city.
As an 18-year-old high school student, Posmysz was arrested in 1942 while distributing leaflets for the Polish resistance in her hometown of Kraków.
She was saved from death in Auschwitz by the SS commando in the camp kitchen.
She asked: "Who understands German?" Zofia Posmysz had learned the language at school.
"You will be my scribe!"
After two and a half years in Auschwitz she was deported to Ravensbrück.
As a 21-year-old woman, she experienced the liberation in May 1945 in Neustadt-Glewe.
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.
feb/dpa