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Jane Mathison Haining (6 June 1897 – 17 July 1944)[a] was a Scottish missionary for the Church of Scotland in Budapest, Hungary, who was recognised in 1997 by Yad Vashem in Israel as Righteous Among the Nations for having risked her life to help Jews during the Holocaust.[b]

Key Information

Haining worked in Budapest from June 1932 as matron of a boarding house for Jewish and Christian girls in a school run by the Scottish Mission to the Jews.[3][c] In or around 1940, after the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Church of Scotland advised Haining to return to Britain, but she decided to stay in Hungary.[5]

When Germany invaded Hungary in March 1944, the SS began arranging the deportation of the country's Jews to Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the German extermination camp in occupied Poland.[d]

Arrested by the Gestapo in April 1944 on a variety of charges, apparently after a dispute with the school's cook, Haining was herself deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in May. She died there two months later, probably as a result of starvation and the camp's catastrophic living conditions.[2]

Little is known about Haining's work in Budapest or death in Auschwitz. In 1949 a Scottish minister, the Reverend David McDougall (1889–1964), editor of the Jewish Mission Quarterly,[9] published a 21-page booklet about her, Jane Haining of Budapest.[10] According to Jennifer Robertson, writing in 2014 for PRISM: An Interdisciplinary Journal for Holocaust Educators, almost all subsequent publications about Haining depend on McDougall's booklet.[11]

Early life

[edit]
Haining (seated, second right) at Dumfries Academy

Born at Lochenhead Farm in Dunscore, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, Haining was the fifth child of Jane Mathison and her husband, Thomas John Haining, a farmer, who had married in 1890. Mathison, herself from a farming family, died in 1902 while giving birth to the couple's sixth child, when Haining was about five.[12] Haining's father remarried in January 1922 and died that June. Toward the end of the year, his second wife, Robertina Maxwell, gave birth to a daughter, Agnes.[13]

Haining grew up as a member of the evangelical Craig Church in Dunscore, part of the United Free Church of Scotland.[14][e] Educated at Dunscore village school, she won a scholarship to Dumfries Academy in 1909, as her older sisters Alison and Margaret had done, where she lived as a boarder in the Moat Hostel for Girls.[16] She graduated as the school dux, one of 41 school prizes she was awarded, and left with Highers in English, French, German, Latin and Mathematics.[14]

Career

[edit]

Secretarial work, retraining

[edit]

After graduating, Haining trained at the Athenaeum Commercial College in Glasgow, and from 1917 until 1927 worked in Paisley for J. and P Coats Ltd, a thread manufacturer, first as a clerk, then as secretary to the private secretary. During this period, she lived at 90 Forth Street, Pollokshields, Glasgow, and attended the nearby Queen's Park West United Free Church, where she taught Sunday School. According to Nan Potter, who attended the classes, Haining would buy the children cream buns for tuppence ha'penny. It was around this time that she became interested in becoming a missionary.[13] In 1927 she attended a meeting in Glasgow of the Jewish Mission Committee and heard Rev. Dr. George Mackenzie, chair of the committee, discuss his missionary work. She reportedly told a friend "I have found my lifework!"[17]

Her manager at work was ill at the time, so Haining stayed with Coats for another five months, then another year while he trained her replacement.[18] There followed a one-year diploma course at the Glasgow College of Domestic Science, which gave her a qualification in domestic science and housekeeping. She took a temporary post in Glasgow, then in Manchester as a matron. In or around 1932 she responded to an advertisement in the Church of Scotland magazine Life and Work, looking for a matron for the girls' hostel attached to its Jewish mission school in Budapest.[19] The majority of the United Free Church of Scotland had united with the Church of Scotland in 1929.

Scottish mission

[edit]
The Scottish Mission, Vörösmarty utca 51, Budapest, 2017

The Jewish mission ran a school for both Jewish and Christian girls in its mission building at 51 Vörösmarty Street.[20] The Church of Scotland had established the mission, also known as St Columba's Church, in 1841 to evangelize Hungarian Jews.[20] The founding ministers, Alexander Black and Alexander Keith, along with Andrew Bonar and Robert Murray M'Cheyne, had been making their way to Jerusalem to spread Christianity, when Black is reported to have injured himself falling from his camel, as a result of which he and Keith decided to return to Scotland. They did so via Budapest, where their stay became protracted when Keith fell ill. The Archduchess Dorothea of Austria befriended them there, and the men were persuaded to establish a Scottish mission in that city.[21]

Work for the mission

[edit]

The Jewish mission committee sent Haining for further training at St Colm's Women's Missionary College in Edinburgh.[22] Her dedication service took place at St Stephen's Church, Edinburgh, on 19 June 1932, during a service presided over by the chair of the Jewish mission committee, Dr. Stewart Thompson. Haining left for Budapest the next day,[23] seven months before Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933.

The girls' home was on the third floor of the Vörösmarty Street mission building,[24] and consisted of two bedrooms with about 16 girls in each room, as of 1932.[25] Most of the students were Jews. McDougall wrote in 1949: "Not all the girls were Jewesses however, for it was considered wise to have a proportion of Christian girls among them."[26]

Haining wrote that the school had 400 pupils ranging from six to 16; 30–40 of them were boarders, either live-in or day boarders. These were the girls for whom Haining was responsible. Although Hungarian law did not allow religious conversion before the age of 18, she wrote, the school aimed to prepare its Jewish students for conversion to Christianity. The daily Bible lesson for all pupils included study of the New Testament. Haining made efforts to have part of the building converted to club rooms, so that the evangelical work could continue for girls who had left the school, as most did when they were 14 or 15.[27]

World War II

[edit]

When World War II broke out on 3 September 1939, Haining was on holiday in Cornwall with Margit Prém, the Hungarian head of the mission's elementary school.[28] The women returned immediately to Budapest. They had hoped to take Haining's sister Agnes back with them for a visit, but the war changed their plans.[29] According to McDougall, Haining wrote to someone: "The journey back was a nightmare—five changes, no porters, no hot food, crowded trains like Bank Holiday plus luggage, no sanitary conveniences fit to mention, two nights spent on the platform beside, or on, our luggage."[30] In 1940 the Church of Scotland missions committee in Edinburgh advised her to return to Scotland, but according to McDougall she felt safe in Hungary and decided to stay.[5] He mentioned her briefly in his book In Search of Israel (1941): "Miss Haining, the matron of the girls' home, stayed on after the others, and she is there still. By roundabout ways we hear from her sometimes."[31] She wrote to someone shortly after the outbreak of war:

However I am glad to say we are shaking down into something like order, although it was a month after I came back before I was able to have one complete afternoon off duty ... The children are gradually getting into harness and I am having time to miss the letters which do not come. Of the war it is better not to speak and indeed there is nothing to say in a letter. Hungary is neutral and anxious to remain so, so we, who are enjoying her hospitality, are refraining from talking politics.[32]

From then on, particularly from 1941, Jewish refugees from all over German-occupied Europe began arriving in Hungary to escape the Holocaust.[f] According to McDougall, Haining wrote to someone in or around 1938: "What a ghastly feeling it must be to know that no one wants you and to feel that your neighbours literally grudge you your daily bread."[29] According to one colleague, she would rise at 5 am on market days to find food for the home and would carry the heavy bags back herself. She is reported to have cut up her leather suitcase to repair the girls' shoes.[34] A pupil at the school told a filmmaker decades later: "We understood even as third-graders, that we are protected here, we are not harmed, we are protected, and we are equals. We could see, we could understand this, because they behaved accordingly."[35]

Rev. George Knight, the mission's superintendent, wrote in 1944, after Haining's death: "During those awful years of the 'war of nerves,' when refugees were pouring out of Germany into the comparative safety of Hungary, the Mission staff spent a hectic time attempting to aid those émigrés to continue their flight to Great Britain and the Western Hemisphere. We established a training school for prospective domestic servants and Miss Haining ... gave courses of lectures to Jewish refugees on British conditions."[36]

German invasion of Hungary

[edit]
See also: Hungary in World War II
Concentration camps and ghettos in occupied Europe (2007 borders); Auschwitz is circled in red.

On 19 March 1944, the German Wehrmacht invaded Hungary, and the SS immediately began arranging for the country's Jews to be deported to Auschwitz. SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann and his Sondereinsatzkommando Ungarn ("special intervention unit Hungary") arrived in Budapest to take charge of the deportations.[37] On 31 March a range of anti-Jewish restrictions were introduced, in force as of 5 April: Jews were forbidden from owning cars and radios, using telephones, moving home, wearing school uniform, or using public baths, swimming pools, public restaurants, cafes, bars or catering services. They had to declare any property except for a small amount of household items. Jewish lawyers, civil servants, and journalists were sacked, non-Jews were not allowed to work in Jewish households, books by Jews could not be published, and those already in existence could not be borrowed from libraries.[38]

Jews over the age of six were required to wear a 10 x 10 cm yellow badge in the shape of the Star of David on the left chest of their outer clothing.[39] Following the decree, Jews would be arrested for petty issues, such as wearing a star of the wrong size.[39] In mid-April 1944 the SS began herding them into holding areas, including ghettos and brick factories, where they were held for weeks with little to eat.[40]

Arrest

[edit]

Charges

[edit]

The Church of Scotland Jewish mission committee in Edinburgh wrote to the British Foreign Office around the time of the invasion of Hungary that it was "under a very deep debt of gratitude to Miss Jane Haining ... By her personal influence and faithfulness she has inspired such loyalty that the Budapest [Jewish] Mission has maintained its former high standards. Recent events have seriously altered the situation and the thoughts of the Church will be with [her] and her colleagues in the new difficulties that have arisen."[41]

In late April or early May 1944 (25 April, according to Bishop László Ravasz of the Reformed Church in Hungary),[g][h] two officers from the Gestapo (the German secret police) arrived at the mission home to arrest Haining. They searched her office and bedroom, and gave her 15 minutes to pack.[43] According to one colleague's diary entry on 30 April 1944, Haining was "now in the cellars of Police HQ. I asked [the consulate] why and was told that a charwoman denounced her of having a secret radio receiver".[44] She was at first held in a house used by the Gestapo in the Buda Hills, before being moved to Fő utca ("Main Street") prison. Her friends took her weekly parcels of food and clean underwear.[43] According to a fellow prisoner, Miss Francis W. Lee, as told by David McDougall in 1949 (Lee survived the war and moved to New Zealand), Haining was questioned twice and had the following charges put to her:

  • That she had worked among the Jews.
  • That she had wept when putting yellow stars on the girls.
  • That she had dismissed her housekeeper, who was an Aryan.
  • That she had listened to the news broadcasts of the B.B.C.
  • That she had many British visitors.
  • That she was active in politics.
  • That she visited British prisoners of war.
  • That she sent them parcels.[45]

According to McDougall, Haining had been given permission by the Hungarian government to visit British prisoners of war, and she had indeed sent them parcels.[45] After admitting the charges, except for the allegation of political activity, Haining was moved to the Kistarcsa transit camp.[15] Her friends arrived at the Fő utca prison with food and clean underwear, but she had gone.[45] Francis Lee wrote in July 1945 to Dr. Laszlo Nagy of the Hungarian Reformed Church:

I remember very clearly the day she brought this list [of charges] from the Svabhegy prison where she had been "questioned": She read them out laughingly to me saying she had felt such a "stupid" repeating Ja, es ist wahr ["Yes, it is true"], after each accusation, except the sixth (that she had been involved in politics). She said she had been too busy to occupy herself with politics. Yes, she had wept, and again began to weep. ... After 17 days in prison, she was taken away but left in very good health and spirits. We all felt sure she was going to a pleasant outdoor camp. Little did I realize I would never see her again. ... She endeared herself to all her fellow-prisoners and everybody wept when she left.[46]

Bishop László Ravasz told the Scottish Mission in 1946 that he had tried to obtain support for Haining from Admiral Miklós Horthy, the Regent of Hungary, who, Ravasz said, "learned of the case with deep regret and assured me of his sympathy for the Church of Scotland and all her workers". Ravasz also spoke to or met with the State Secretary Miklos Mester and the Hungarian prime minister, who, at the time of Haining's arrest, was Döme Sztójay. Ravasz understood that the prime minister had instructed an under-secretary to seek Haining's release, but Ravasz received no further reply to his inquiries.[42]

Mass deportations to Auschwitz

[edit]
See also: The Holocaust in Hungary and Holocaust trains
Hungarian Jews arrive at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, c. May 1944. The gatehouse is visible in the background.
The gatehouse in 2014

In April 1944, the Germans began deporting Hungary's Jews to the German extermination camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau in occupied Poland. The mass transports began on 15 May. Between then and 9 July 1944, the SS deported the Jewish community in closed goods wagons at a rate of 12,000 a day. According to Edmund Veesenmayer, Hitler's minister in Hungary, 437,402 Hungarian Jews were deported,[8] constituting almost the entire Jewish population of Hungary's countryside.[47] Deportees were taken in Hungarian trains to the Slovak border, then transferred to German trains to be taken to southern Poland,[48] a journey of about two days. Squeezed into the wagons in horrendous conditions, with little air, light, food or water, with buckets for latrines and no privacy, many people died during the journey.[49] Gertrud "Trude" Levi was deported from Hungary to Auschwitz in 1944:

The normal load for the trucks was 60–90 people, we were 120 ... We had two buckets for our human needs, we had to overcome our inhibitions to use them—men, women, strangers, children ... [W]ith every jolt of the train the muck ran out so we were sitting in it and we couldn't do a thing about it. This was June 1944, a very hot summer and there was very little air in the truck. The two openings had barbed wire over them and the air became really unbearable. ... [W]e were getting thirstier and thirstier ... you were hungry, you had a piece of bread in your hand but couldn't eat it because you couldn't swallow any more. It meant people went into hysterics, people went mad, people had heart attacks, and people died. And we had the dead, the mad, the hysterical and the screaming among us and we could not do a thing about it.[50]

From May 1944 the trains into Auschwitz II arrived on a new train spur that had been built to carry the Hungarian Jews directly into the camp. The three-track line, which stopped near the gas chambers, meant that a new train could arrive while a previous one was being unloaded. The crematoria could barely cope; the Sonderkommando (prisoners forced to work there) had to start burning bodies in open fire pits.[51] About 90 per cent of the Hungarian Jews who survived the journey to Auschwitz were sent to the gas chambers on arrival; the rest were selected for slave labour.[52]

Haining's deportation, final letter

[edit]
Female prisoners in Auschwitz II-Birkenau, c. May 1944

According to the Polish historian Danuta Czech, Haining was deported to Auschwitz II on 15 May 1944.[a] According to David McDougall, she was taken to Auschwitz along with 90 other prisoners from the Kistarcsa transit camp. One former pupil said that many of the Jewish girls from the Scottish mission also ended up in Auschwitz; a few survived.[54]

Selected for work rather than the gas chamber, Haining was given the serial number 79467 and probably had the number tattooed on her arm. She sent a postcard from Auschwitz, written in German, to Margit Prém of the mission school. (The card was forwarded on 1 August 1956 to the Church of Scotland's Department of World Mission.)[55] Postmarked "Auschwitz, Oberschlesien", 21 July 1944, one side is headed "Konzentrationslager Auschwitz" ("Auschwitz concentration camp") and lists the rules for corresponding with prisoners. The other side is dated 15 July 1944, written in pencil:

My dearest Margit! I have not yet had an answer to my first letter, but I know there is nothing you can do about that. I'll repeat it briefly, in case by any chance you haven't received it. You're allowed to write to me twice a month, and I'm allowed to write once a month, but only to you. Packages are not restricted by number or name. I asked you to register me with our Red Cross, but I should like it if you could possibly send me apples or other fresh fruit and biscuits, rusks and other kinds of bread, as of course the Red Cross doesn't send things like that. ... Your loving Jean[56]

Death

[edit]

According to a death certificate that arrived in Edinburgh on 17 August 1944, Haining died in hospital, presumably in Auschwitz, on 17 July 1944, two days after the date written in pencil on her card to Margit Prém. Delivered courtesy of the German legation in Budapest and the Swiss government, the death certificate stated: "Miss Haining who was arrested on account of justified suspicion of espionage against Germany, died in hospital, July 17th, of cachexia following intestinal catarrh."[57] In June 1946, the Church of Scotland magazine Life and Work reported that the Scottish Mission in Budapest had received a letter about Haining from Bishop Ravasz in Budapest, describing his efforts in 1944 to bring her arrest to the attention of the Hungarian government. The final response he received was "a package which was delivered at the end of July to the Scottish Mission, and from which it could be ascertained that Miss Haining lost her life in a German concentration camp".[h] Bishop Ravasz added to his letter:

The Hungarian Reformed Church surrounded with sympathy and high esteem this frail and heroic-spirited lady. Her superiors had three times insisted on her to go home, but she had always declined. Twofold are our griefs: being ourselves captives, we were not able to save her; and being trodden down, we had no power to stand up for her more effectively.[h]

Haining's Bible was found in the mission home after the war,[58] and is on display in the mission building.[1] Some of her belongings were found in 2016 in the attic space of the Church of Scotland's head office in George Street, Edinburgh. They included her handwritten will, dated July 1942, and over 70 photographs of the girls in the mission school.[59][60] The items were placed in the National Library of Scotland.[61]

Memorials

[edit]
Memorial in Dunscore, Haining's home village
Stumbling stone für Haining in Edinburgh (2025)

Little was known about Auschwitz when Haining died. Robertson writes that a 1944 Church of Scotland report stated that she had been sent to a "detention camp for women in Auschwitz in Upper Silesia", and her family's tombstone in the Irongray churchyard near Castle Douglas placed her death in Germany.[11] The Scottish Mission in Budapest unveiled a memorial tablet for her in 1946.[62] In June 1948 two stained glass windows in her honour were installed in the vestibule of Queen's Park Govanhill Parish Church in Glasgow, where she worshipped.[63]

On 27 January 1997—International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 52nd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz—Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, recognized Haining as Righteous Among the Nations. Her name is inscribed on a wall of honour in the Garden of the Righteous in Jerusalem.[2] The honour is awarded to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.[64] Twenty-two British people had been recognized as of January 2018.[65] Haining was the second Scot; Tommy Noble, a Scottish POW, was made Righteous Among the Nations in 1988.[66]

Other memorials to Haining include a cairn near Dunscore Church, made possible in 2005 by public donation,[67] and a Church of Scotland "Jane Haining prize", which arranges an annual visit to Scotland for a Hungarian teacher and two students.[15] In 2010 the city of Budapest renamed a section of an embankment after her: Pesti alsó rakpart (Pest-side lower embankment, along the Danube between the Széchenyi Chain Bridge and Elizabeth Bridge) became Jane Haining rakpart. Also in 2010, the British government named her a British Hero of the Holocaust.[68] In 2016, a memorial event attended by former pupils of the mission school was held in Hungary and in 2017 Haining was again honoured by the city of Budapest in a new exhibition at its Holocaust Memorial Centre.[69][70]

Karine Polwart, the Scottish singer-songwriter, wrote a song about Haining entitled "Baleerie Baloo" (named after the Scottish lullaby Baloo Baleerie) for her 2006 album, Scribbled in Chalk.[71] In 2009 Raymond Raszkowski Ross based a play on her life, A Promised Land,[72] and New Zealand journalist Lynley Smith wrote a fictionalised diary, From Matron to Martyr (2012), based on Haining's life.[73] In 2016 Haining was named in the video accompanying "Girl (Daughter of Scotland)", a Scottish women's anthem by Sharon Martin.[74] BBC Scotland poet-in-residence Stuart A. Paterson wrote a tribute to Haining for National Holocaust Memorial Day 2018, "In Days of Darkness".[75]

Seventy-five years after her death the Church of Scotland's Life and Work magazine reprinted its 1946 article about her dedication and death: 'A Gallant Lady' who 'Faced the Gestapo'.[76]

On 10 June 2021, the Scottish Episcopal Church at its General Synod voted to include Haining in its calendar of saints and heroes. She will be remembered on 17 July.[77] A brass Stolperstein stone has been placed outside St Stephen's Church, Stockbridge, Edinburgh in Haining's memory unveiled in Edinburgh in November 2025 in a ceremony attended by members of her family. The church had held a service for her in 1932 before she left for her work as a matron in Budapest.[78]

  • Plaque at the Scottish Mission, Budapest
    Plaque at the Scottish Mission, Budapest
  • Plaque at Dumfries Academy
    Plaque at Dumfries Academy
  • Jane Haining rakpart ("Jane Haining quay"), Budapest
    Jane Haining rakpart ("Jane Haining quay"), Budapest

See also

[edit]

Sources

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Danuta Czech (Auschwitz, 1940–1945. Central Issues in the History of the Camp, Volume V, 2000): "July 17 [1944]: Prisoner Jane Haining (serial number 79467, born June 6, 1897), a British citizen and director of the Scottish Institute in Budapest, died in Birkenau. She had been arrested in late April, 1944, on suspicion of spying for Britain, and sent to Auschwitz on May 15."[53]
  2. ^ Yad Vashem: "In March 1944, Germany occupied Hungary and soon began to deport the Jews from the Hungarian provinces. Haining was not deterred and stood by her students with great bravery, exposing herself to danger."[2]
  3. ^ Mitchell Leslie Glaser (Fuller Theological Seminary, 1998): "A mission to the Jews is an organization that has as its primary focus the evangelization of the Jewish people, although its activities may include ministries that are not directly evangelistic, including discipleship training, spiritual nurture, congregational planting, literature production, medical and educational work."[4]
  4. ^ Of the estimated 1.3 million people sent to Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945, at least 1.1 million died,[6] around 90 per cent of them Jews.[7]

    Of the over 437,000 Hungarian Jews deported to Auschwitz between May and July 1944, 90 per cent were sent on arrival to the gas chambers.[8]

  5. ^ Craig Church in Dunscore belonged to the United Free Church of Scotland from 1900. It had belonged to the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland until 1876, and thereafter the Free Church of Scotland until 1900.[15]
  6. ^ In its 1941 census, Hungary recorded 725,005 Jews, 4.94 per cent of a population of 14,683,323. Another 100,000 Christians were identified as of Jewish origin or "racial Jews".[33] Despite the country's antisemitism, it was at that point (before March 1944) still relatively safe for Jews compared to its neighbours.[citation needed]
  7. ^ According to David McDougall, Haining was arrested in early May 1944; according to Bishop László Ravasz of the Reformed Church in Hungary, in a letter to the Scottish Mission in or around 1946, she was arrested on 25 April.
  8. ^ a b c Bishop László Ravasz, Reformed Church in Hungary (1946): "On the 25th April, 1944, the agents of the Gestapo arrested and carried away Miss Haining, the matron of the Girls’ Home of the Scottish Mission. For her release I requested the support of the Regent, who learned of the case with deep regret and assured me of his sympathy for the Church of Scotland and all her workers.
    "Then, along with State Secretary Mr. Miklos Mester, I called on the Prime Minister [of Hungary] and begged him to make the strongest intervention for the release of Miss Haining. The Prime Minister, as the Minister for Foreign Affairs, accordingly instructed his substitute, the Under Secretary, and I have no reason whatever to doubt that the Under Secretary took the due steps. But to my request I received no reply.
    "A final and sorrowful reply was a package which was delivered at the end of July to the Scottish Mission, and from which it could be ascertained that Miss Haining lost her life in a German concentration camp.
    "The Hungarian Reformed Church surrounded with sympathy and high esteem this frail and heroic-spirited lady. Her superiors had three times insisted on her to go home, but she had always declined. Twofold are our griefs: being ourselves captives, we were not able to save her; and being trodden down, we had no power to stand up for her more effectively."[42]

    For information about Bishop Ravasz, see "Dr. Laszlo Ravasz, Hungarian Bishop". The New York Times. 30 August 1975.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Robertson 2014, p. 33.
  2. ^ a b c "Jane Haining, United Kingdom". Yad Vashem. Archived from the original on 16 February 2019.

    "The Righteous Among the Nations: Haining Jane (1897 – 1944)". Yad Vashem. Archived from the original on 16 February 2019.

  3. ^ Lester 2013; Robertson 2014, p. 30.
  4. ^ Glaser 1998, p. 9.
  5. ^ a b McDougall 1949, p. 16.
  6. ^ Piper 1998, pp. 70–71.
  7. ^ "Ethnic origins and number of victims of Auschwitz". Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. Archived from the original on 2 February 2019.
  8. ^ a b Braham 1998, p. 465.
  9. ^ McDougall & Alexander 1998, p. 40.
  10. ^ McDougall 1949.
  11. ^ a b Robertson 2014, p. 34.
  12. ^ McDougall & Alexander 1998, p. 10.
  13. ^ a b McDougall & Alexander 1998, p. 12.
  14. ^ a b McDougall & Alexander 1998, p. 11.
  15. ^ a b c Wright 2004.
  16. ^ McDougall & Alexander 1998, p. 11; for the sisters' names, p. 10.
  17. ^ McDougall 1949, p. 6; also see McDougall & Alexander 1998, p. 13.
  18. ^ McDougall 1949, pp. 6–7.
  19. ^ McDougall 1949, p. 7; also see Bánóczi 2014, 00:05:26.
  20. ^ a b Robertson 2014, pp. 29–30; Lester 2013.
  21. ^ Walker 1895, pp. 168–169; Robertson 2014, p. 30. Also see McDougall 1941, pp. 34–35, cited in Glaser 1998, pp. 116–117.
  22. ^ McDougall 1949, p. 7.
  23. ^ McDougall 1949, p. 8.
  24. ^ Bánóczi 2014, 00:010:06.
  25. ^ Bánóczi 2014, 00:012:30.
  26. ^ McDougall 1949, p. 9.
  27. ^ McDougall 1949, p. 10.
  28. ^ McDougall 1949, p. 14; Bánóczi 2014, 00:15:06.
  29. ^ a b McDougall 1949, p. 14.
  30. ^ McDougall 1949, p. 14; also see Robertson 2014, p. 30.
  31. ^ McDougall 1941, cited in Ross 2011, p. 20.
  32. ^ McDougall 1949, p. 15.
  33. ^ Braham 1998, pp. 466–467, footnote 2.
  34. ^ Robertson 2014, p. 31.
  35. ^ Bánóczi 2014, 00:18:26.
  36. ^ Robertson 2014, p. 30, citing McDougall, David, ed. (1944). "About Miss Haining". The Church of Scotland Jewish Mission Quarterly. 83. OCLC 56699515.
  37. ^ Friedländer 2007, p. 613.
  38. ^ Braham 2000, pp. 101–106.
  39. ^ a b Braham 2000, p. 102.
  40. ^ Wyman 2007, p. 235; Friedländer 2007, p. 614.
  41. ^ Robertson 2014, p. 32.
  42. ^ a b Life and Work 1946.
  43. ^ a b McDougall 1949, p. 17.
  44. ^ Robertson 2014, p. 31, citing Scott, M. M. (1943–1944). Untitled. Acc. 5385, Book XV, 20 November 1943 – October 1944, handwritten. National Library of Scotland.
  45. ^ a b c McDougall 1949, p. 18.
  46. ^ Lee 1945, pp. 1–2, cited in Robertson 2014, pp. 31–32.
  47. ^ Braham 2011, p. 45.
  48. ^ Friedländer 2007, p. 615.
  49. ^ Braham 1998, p. 463.
  50. ^ Smith 2007, pp. 212–213.
  51. ^ Friedländer 2007, pp. 615–616.
  52. ^ Braham 1998, p. 466.
  53. ^ Czech 2000, p. 204.
  54. ^ Stone & Stone 2014, 00:21:35.
  55. ^ Robertson 2014, p. 29.
  56. ^ Bánóczi 2014, 00:24:06; Robertson 2014, p. 29.
  57. ^ McDougall 1949, p. 19; McDougall & Alexander 1998, p. 31; Gilbert 1991, p. 293.
  58. ^ McDougall & Alexander 1998, p. 31, cited in Robertson 2014, p. 33.
  59. ^ "Scots Holocaust heroine's last will and testament uncovered". The Church of Scotland. 14 September 2016. Archived from the original on 6 June 2018.
  60. ^ Sherwood, Harriet (14 September 2016). "Will belonging to Scot who died in Auschwitz found in church archives". The Guardian.
  61. ^ Quigley, Elizabeth (14 September 2016). "Documents 'shed light' on Scotswoman killed at Auschwitz". BBC Scotland News.
  62. ^ "Unveil Memorial Tablet for Scottish Woman". The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle. Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 9 October 1946. p. 7.
  63. ^ "Jane Haining". Queen's Park Govanhill Parish Church. 28 January 2015. Archived from the original on 27 December 2018.
  64. ^ "Righteous Among the Nations". Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Archived from the original on 14 June 2018.
  65. ^ "Righteous Among the Nations Honored by Yad Vashem by 1 January 2018: United Kingdom" (PDF). Yad Vashem. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 February 2019.
  66. ^ "Time to honour Jane Haining, Scotland's Schindler". The Scotsman. 26 January 2009.

    "Noble family". Yad Vashem. Archived from the original on 21 February 2019.

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  68. ^ "Britons honoured for Holocaust heroism". The Daily Telegraph. 9 March 2010. Archived from the original on 12 March 2010.
  69. ^ Addley, Esther (22 September 2016). "Scottish teacher killed in Auschwitz is remembered by her students". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
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  71. ^ Polwart, Karine. "Baleerie Baloo". karinepolwart.bandcamp.com. Archived from the original on 19 February 2019.

    Gallacher, Alex (1 February 2019). "An Interview with Hannah Rarity". Folk Radio UK. Archived from the original on 19 February 2019.

  72. ^ "Jane Haining - Play Casts New Light On 'The Scottish Schindler'". Theatre Objektiv. 12 August 2009. Archived from the original on 19 February 2019.
  73. ^ Smith, Lynley (2012). From Matron to Martyr: One Woman's Ultimate Sacrifice for the Jews. Mustang, Oklahoma: Tate Publishing & Enterprises. OCLC 887686612.

    Baker, Amy (19 June 2018). "Age no barrier to travel — 'a great leveller and a great teacher'". Stuff. Archived from the original on 20 February 2019.

  74. ^ Pringle, Fiona (27 April 2017). "Songwriter lends her anthem to Edinburgh women statues campaign". Edinburgh Evening News. Archived from the original on 19 February 2019.
  75. ^ "In Days of Darkness". scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk.
  76. ^ "Looking Back: News of Jane Haining". www.lifeandwork.org. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
  77. ^ "Jane Haining added to SEC liturgical calendar". The Scottish Episcopal Church. 10 July 2021.
  78. ^ "Plaque for Scottish Holocaust victim to be unveiled in Edinburgh". BBC News. 24 November 2025. Retrieved 24 November 2025.

Works cited

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On Haining

On the Holocaust or Jewish missions

Further reading

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Jane Haining

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Jane Mathison Haining (6 June 1897 – 17 July 1944) was a Scottish missionary employed by the who served as matron of the Scottish Mission's Girls' Home in , , from 1932 onward. There, she cared for dozens of orphaned and impoverished Jewish girls, providing education, shelter, and protection amid rising . In 1940, despite orders from the mission board to return to Britain due to wartime dangers, Haining refused, citing her duty to the children under her charge. Following the Nazi occupation of in March 1944, Haining continued her efforts to shield her pupils, including sewing their mandatory yellow stars incorrectly to make them less conspicuous and securing forged papers for some. Arrested by the on 14 July 1944 for alleged violations such as "weeping with" and "expressing sympathy for them," she was deported to , where she died shortly after arrival. In recognition of her self-sacrifice to save Jewish lives at personal peril, Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust remembrance authority, posthumously honored Haining as Righteous Among the Nations in 1997, making her the only Scot to receive this distinction. Her story exemplifies individual moral resolve against totalitarian persecution, with memorials including plaques in Budapest and her hometown of Dunscore underscoring her legacy of humanitarian action grounded in Christian principles.

Early Life

Family and Upbringing

Jane Mathison Haining was born on 6 June 1897 at Lochenhead Farm near the village of Dunscore in , (now part of ), to Thomas John Haining, a farmer, and his wife Jane Mathison, whom he had married on 14 March 1890 in Terregles parish. She was the third daughter and sixth of six children in the family, with older sisters including Alison and Margaret. In February 1902, when Haining was four years old, her mother died during childbirth, leaving the youngest sibling as the only survivor of that delivery. Following this loss, Haining took on substantial domestic responsibilities, helping to care for her younger siblings amid the demands of farm life. The Haining family adhered to the , fostering an environment of Presbyterian faith that shaped her early moral and spiritual outlook. Raised on the isolated farm, she became accustomed to the rigors of rural labor, including and seasonal fieldwork, in a household where self-reliance was essential after the mother's death. This background of familial duty and agricultural hardship contributed to her developing character of steadfastness and service.

Education and Formative Influences

Haining began her formal education at the Dunscore village school in her hometown before securing a to Academy in 1909, following in the footsteps of her older sisters Alison and Margaret. As a boarder at the academy, she resided there from 1909 until 1916, demonstrating exceptional academic aptitude amid the disruptions of the First World War. During her six years at Academy, Haining amassed 41 prizes and culminated her studies as Modern , the highest-ranking student in modern subjects, a distinction earned in the wartime context when the John Laurie placed as runner-up the previous year. Her leaving certificate reflected superior marks in English, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, Latin, French, and German, underscoring a rigorous preparation that equipped her for subsequent professional roles. Haining's formative influences were rooted in her rural Scottish upbringing within the , particularly through membership at Craig Church in Dunscore, fostering a profound Christian commitment that later directed her toward missionary service. This religious foundation, combined with her scholarly achievements, cultivated a sense of duty and resilience evident in her life's trajectory.

Pre-War Career

Secretarial Employment

Following her education at Academy, Haining, at age twenty, relocated to the area and enrolled in training at the and West of Scotland Commercial College, where she developed skills in commercial subjects suitable for office work. Upon completion, she obtained initial employment as a at J. & P. Coats, Ltd., a major thread manufacturing company headquartered in . Her competence in the role was quickly acknowledged by management, resulting in a promotion to the position of secretary to one of the company directors, Matthew Coates. In this capacity, Haining handled administrative duties, correspondence, and organizational tasks for the directorate amid the firm's operations in textile production, which employed thousands in the region during the . She maintained this secretarial post for roughly a decade, residing in Paisley or nearby while balancing professional responsibilities with her growing involvement in church activities through the . This period of stable employment provided and administrative experience that later informed her applications, though it also exposed her to the industrial working conditions of early 20th-century .

Transition to Missionary Training

In the late 1920s, after nearly a decade as a at J. & P. Coats Ltd., a thread manufacturing firm in Paisley, , Haining discerned a calling to service, prompting her resignation from the position to pursue specialized preparation. She first obtained a certificate in domestic science and housekeeping from the Glasgow College of Domestic Science in 1927, skills deemed essential for managing institutional households in mission contexts. The Church of Scotland's Jewish Mission Committee, recognizing her aptitude, nominated her for advanced training and enrolled her at St Colm's College in , the denomination's dedicated institution for preparing female missionaries. Haining entered the program in April 1932, undergoing intensive instruction in , languages, and practical mission duties over several months. She successfully qualified in June 1932, marking her readiness for overseas deployment. This brief but focused period of formation bridged her administrative background with the demands of evangelical work abroad, emphasizing self-reliance and cultural adaptation in line with priorities for Jewish outreach in .

Missionary Service in Hungary

Arrival and Establishment at the Mission

Jane Haining arrived in Budapest in 1932 to assume the role of matron at the Girls' Home attached to the Scottish Mission School, operated by the 's mission to the Jewish community. The mission, established in the with an initial focus on evangelizing Hungarian Jews through education, had by the gained recognition for providing high-quality schooling to both Jewish and Christian pupils, many from impoverished families. Haining's appointment followed her application for the position after prior secretarial work and missionary training in , marking her transition to full-time service abroad. Upon taking up her post, Haining managed the daily welfare and boarding arrangements for dozens of female students, the majority of whom were Jewish, in a home that accommodated girls pursuing at the . Her responsibilities included overseeing meals, , study routines, and moral guidance, fostering an environment that emphasized discipline, , and academic preparation amid Hungary's multicultural urban setting. She rapidly adapted by learning Hungarian, which enabled deeper engagement with staff, students, and local families, thereby solidifying her authority and influence within the institution. The mission school itself served around 400 children aged six to sixteen, blending religious instruction with secular subjects, though enrollment reflected a shift toward educational merit over proselytization as anti-Semitism rose in Europe. Haining's establishment of structured routines contributed to the home's reputation for nurturing self-reliance and resilience among its residents, laying the groundwork for her long-term commitment despite geopolitical tensions.

Role and Responsibilities at the Scottish Mission School

In 1932, Jane Haining was appointed of the Girls' Home at the Scottish Mission School in , , a institution operated by the Church of Scotland's mission to that provided and boarding for children aged six to 16. Her primary role involved overseeing the welfare of approximately 400 pupils, the majority of whom were Jewish, including both day students and boarders in the girls' hostel that accommodated Jewish and Christian girls. As , Haining managed the daily operations of the , ensuring the provision of food, clothing, and hygiene for the residents while maintaining the facility's upkeep. She offered emotional support and , fostering close relationships with the pupils through her attentive and compassionate approach, which earned her widespread respect among students and staff who regarded her as an exemplary figure in the role. Her duties extended to promoting the mission's educational and spiritual objectives, integrating practical skills training and into the girls' routine without proselytizing aggressively, in line with the mission's focus on service to Jewish communities.

Interactions with Jewish Community Pre-War

Jane Haining arrived in on 10 1932 to serve as of the Girls' Home attached to the Scottish , an institution established by the Church of Scotland's Jewish Mission to provide education and boarding for girls from both Jewish and Christian backgrounds. In this role, she oversaw the daily care, meals, and moral guidance for approximately 40 boarders in the dormitory, many of whom were Jewish daughters of impoverished families who could not otherwise afford quality schooling. The school, located in the Vörösmarty utca area, emphasized practical skills such as instruction, , and household management alongside academic subjects, attracting Jewish parents eager for their daughters' advancement in a city where comprised a significant portion of professionals. Throughout the , Haining's interactions with the Jewish community centered on fostering an inclusive environment where religious differences were minimized, treating Jewish pupils with the same affection and discipline as their Christian peers. Former pupils recalled her as a maternal figure who enforced equality, with one stating, "We never felt we were not equal with each other or with the Christian pupils," reflecting the mission's ethos of tolerance amid Budapest's diverse "Jewdapest" . The enrolled hundreds of girls, with many from Jewish families seeking refuge from economic hardship or seeking superior unavailable in segregated settings, though exact pre-1939 figures varied between reports of over 300 to 400 pupils overall. These pre-war efforts built deep bonds, as Haining personally intervened to secure scholarships and boarding places for needy Jewish girls, embodying the Scottish Mission's dual aim of and social welfare without overt proselytizing pressure on Jewish students. Her commitment extended to home visits and correspondence with Jewish families, strengthening community ties in an era before Hungary's anti-Jewish intensified . This groundwork of care and equality laid the foundation for her later wartime protections, demonstrating a consistent pattern of prioritizing pupil welfare over potential risks.

World War II Context

Response to Outbreak of War

Upon the outbreak of on September 1, 1939, following Germany's , the Church of Scotland's Jewish Mission Committee instructed Jane Haining to evacuate from and return to amid rising uncertainties in . Haining, matron of the Scottish Mission School for Girls, which enrolled approximately 40 pupils including many of Jewish descent, refused the order, prioritizing her responsibility to the children under her care. In a letter to the mission committee, Haining explained her decision: "If these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness?" She argued that abandoning her charges during potential hardship would contradict her missionary commitment, especially as , though initially neutral, aligned increasingly with the . This stance allowed her to maintain operations at the school, providing continuity and shelter for vulnerable students as wartime restrictions began to affect Jewish families in . Haining's refusal exemplified her dedication amid early war tensions, including Hungary's participation in the Tripartite Pact in November 1940, though direct threats to Hungarian Jews remained limited until 1944. By staying, she continued fostering a protective environment, sewing yellow stars for pupils to wear as required under emerging anti-Jewish measures and distributing aid to families facing economic strain from the conflict.

Efforts to Protect Jewish Pupils

As progressed and enacted anti-Jewish laws from 1938 onward, Haining intensified her care for the Jewish pupils at the Scottish , where many of the approximately 400 students were Jewish, including 50-60 girls in the boarding hostel under her direct supervision. She refused to dismiss Jewish staff or students despite mounting restrictions, maintaining the school's operations as a refuge amid deportations and ghettoization. In early 1939, as opportunities narrowed, Haining established a domestic servants' registry at the mission, training Jewish girls in household skills and British to facilitate their placement as servants in Britain, thereby aiding their escape from ; this effort reportedly saved many before wartime borders closed. Following the German occupation of on March 19, 1944, which accelerated mass deportations, Haining provided extra rations from mission supplies to the Jewish boarders facing starvation and supplied them with food during confinements. She assisted the girls in complying with the yellow star mandate by helping sew the badges, often weeping openly at the humiliation, and in some cases concealed stars or provided false Christian identities to evade detection. These actions exposed her to scrutiny, as she openly prioritized the pupils' welfare over compliance with Nazi edicts. Haining's defiance stemmed from her conviction that the children needed her protection more than ever, as evidenced by her rejection of evacuation in 1939 and 1940 despite directives, ensuring continuity of shelter until her arrest on April 25, 1944. Testimonies from surviving pupils later credited her maternal oversight with preserving their lives during the "days of darkness."

Defiance of Evacuation Orders

Following the German occupation of Hungary on March 19, 1944—known as Operation Margarethe—which marked the onset of intensified anti-Jewish measures including ghettoization and deportations, British subjects in the country, including missionaries, received explicit directives to evacuate for their safety. These orders originated from diplomatic protections extended by neutral powers such as , which assumed responsibility for British interests after Hungary's Axis alignment rendered the an enemy state, as well as urgent appeals from the 's foreign mission board emphasizing the deteriorating security for foreigners. Jane Haining, then serving as matron and head teacher at the Scottish Mission School in , was personally notified of these imperatives through official channels, with safe passage arranged to mitigate risks amid the roundup of for extermination camps. Haining explicitly rejected the evacuation mandates, declaring her intention to remain with her charges despite the peril, as documented in correspondence and witness accounts from the mission community. Her rationale centered on the moral imperative to shield the school's roughly 400 residents—predominantly Jewish girls aged 6 to 16, many orphaned or from impoverished families—who faced imminent separation, forced labor, or death under Nazi directives ordering the dispersal or removal of Jewish pupils from educational institutions. Echoing her earlier 1940 refusal of repatriation orders with the sentiment that "if these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness," Haining reiterated in 1944 communications to superiors that she would "continue to do my duty," prioritizing their welfare over personal survival amid reports of mass deportations already underway. This stance contravened not only external evacuation protocols but also Hungarian authorities' demands to dismiss or segregate Jewish students, actions she deemed tantamount to abandonment. By defying these orders, Haining exposed herself to accusations of and with , rendering her mission premises a focal point for scrutiny in the subsequent months. Her persistence enabled continued sheltering and sustenance for the girls through forged protections and hidden resources, though it directly precipitated her surveillance and ultimate apprehension on April 25, 1944, when agents raided the school citing violations including unauthorized aid to and foreign dissemination. Historical records from Church archives and survivor testimonies affirm that no coercion or duress altered her position, underscoring a deliberate ethical rooted in duty to vulnerable dependents over compliance with wartime exigencies.

Arrest by Gestapo

Precipitating Events and Charges

Following the German occupation of on March 19, 1944, heightened scrutiny fell on foreign nationals and those aiding , amid escalating deportations from Budapest's Scottish . A key precipitating incident involved Jane Haining confronting Schreder, the son-in-law of the school's dismissed housekeeper and a known fascist sympathizer, after discovering him stealing food intended for the Jewish pupils; dressed in a new and boots amid wartime shortages, he was ordered to leave the premises, prompting him to denounce Haining to the . This betrayal, combined with Haining's visible efforts to protect her students—such as sewing yellow stars onto their clothing while reportedly weeping—intensified suspicions against her as an anti-Nazi figure. On the morning of April 25, 1944, two officers arrived at the mission and arrested Haining without resistance, in the presence of her distraught pupils. The authorities formally charged her with eight offenses, primarily aimed at portraying her missionary work as subversive and pro-Jewish agitation under the guise of religious duty:
  • Working among and employing Jewish girls at the school.
  • Weeping while yellow stars onto the clothing of Jewish pupils.
  • Dismissing an "" housekeeper (the mother of Schreder).
  • Listening to broadcasts.
  • Hosting numerous British visitors at the mission.
  • Engaging in political activity.
  • Visiting British prisoners of .
  • Sending parcels to British prisoners of .
These charges, which Haining largely admitted except for explicit , reflected efforts to criminalize her refusal to abandon Jewish orphans and her defiance of anti-Semitic edicts, rather than evidence of genuine security threats. She was initially detained in a prison pending interrogation, underscoring the rapid escalation from local grievance to Nazi .

Interrogation Process

Haining was arrested by two officers on the morning of 25 April 1944 at the Scottish Mission School in , where she served as . Allowed only 15 minutes to collect personal belongings, she was immediately transported for initial questioning by Hungarian authorities aligned with the . The interrogation process, conducted over subsequent days at a police station and later at Foutca prison, centered on eight specific charges leveled against her, including , political agitation, "working among ," weeping while sewing yellow stars onto the clothing of Jewish pupils, visiting Jewish families in their homes, providing money to , and dismissing an (non-Jewish) housekeeper. During questioning, the charges were progressively expanded as interrogators probed her activities at the mission, particularly her refusal to discriminate against Jewish pupils amid Hungary's alignment with Nazi policies after German occupation in 1944. Haining steadfastly admitted to the humanitarian actions involving Jewish children and families—such as financial aid and home visits—but categorically denied or political , reportedly rejecting only that single accusation outright while affirming her Christian duty to protect the vulnerable. Her was confiscated during the process, symbolizing the interrogators' dismissal of her religious motivations. The sessions, lasting several weeks amid her , yielded no , after which she was classified as a political and prepared for without formal .

Deportation and Death

Transport to Auschwitz

Jane Haining was deported from to Auschwitz-Birkenau on 14 May 1944 as a political prisoner. She traveled by rail in a sealed freight car, enduring severe , lack of , and minimal provisions during the roughly 500-kilometer journey. The transport comprised approximately 31 Hungarian prisoners, including several Jewish girls from the Scottish Mission School under Haining's care. Conditions aboard were brutal, with deportees confined without adequate food, water, or ventilation, leading to widespread suffering from , , and exhaustion. Haining arrived at the camp on 15 May 1944, where she was stripped, disinfected, and tattooed with prisoner number 79467 before assignment to forced labor.

Conditions and Demise in the Camp

Jane Haining was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where she was registered as prisoner number 79467 and assigned to forced labor in the women's section. Upon arrival in mid-1944 amid the mass deportation of Hungarian Jews, she faced immediate subjection to the camp's regime of starvation rations—typically consisting of watery soup, meager bread, and ersatz coffee—leading to widespread and weakness among prisoners. Overcrowded , lacking and adequate bedding, fostered rampant diseases such as and , exacerbated by the absence of medical care for non-essential inmates. endured hard physical labor, likely in construction or factory work typical for women in Birkenau's labor pools during this period, under brutal supervision by SS guards and kapos. The camp's conditions included routine selections for the gas chambers, where unfit prisoners were separated, though survived initial triage long enough to be documented in records. Exposure to extreme elements, enforced roll calls lasting hours in all weather, and psychological terror contributed to rapid physical deterioration; her final communication alluded to her plight, stating, "There is not much to report here on the way to heaven." By early July 1944, Haining's health had collapsed due to —severe from prolonged —complicated by intestinal , a condition akin to severe gastrointestinal often linked to in the camp. She was admitted to the camp hospital, where resources were minimal and prioritized for labor recovery rather than genuine treatment, and died there on July 17, 1944, at age 47. Official Nazi records cited the cause as following intestinal , reflecting the systemic neglect and lethal environment rather than isolated illness. No evidence indicates execution; her demise stemmed directly from the camp's engineered privations, which claimed over a million lives through attrition by 1945.

Posthumous Recognition

Initial Post-War Accounts

Following the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on 27 January , initial post-war accounts of Jane Haining's fate emerged primarily through ecclesiastical channels in and . In , László Ravasz, bishop of the , delivered a report to the Hungarian Synod detailing Haining's arrest by the on 25 April 1944 and her subsequent deportation to a German concentration camp. Ravasz recounted unsuccessful interventions by Hungarian officials, including appeals to the prime minister's office, to secure her release after her detention on charges related to her work with Jewish pupils. These efforts, initiated amid the Nazi occupation of , failed as Haining was transported to Auschwitz, where a package delivered to the Scottish Mission in by late July 1944 confirmed her death in the camp. Ravasz's correspondence extended to the Church of Scotland's Jewish Mission Committee, providing a letter that elaborated on details suppressed during wartime . Published in the Church's Life and Work magazine in June 1946, the account emphasized Haining's refusal to evacuate despite directives from mission superiors and her steadfast commitment to the Jewish girls under her care at the Scottish Mission School. It highlighted her courage in defying evacuation orders issued in and renewed pressures as German forces advanced, framing her sacrifice as a testament to Christian duty amid persecution. These early reports, drawn from direct wartime communications and official inquiries, established the basic chronology of her defiance, arrest, and demise without broader public dissemination or survivor eyewitness corroboration at the time. Limited contemporary newspaper coverage in Britain during 1945–1946 reflected the nascent stage of documentation, with ecclesiastical publications serving as the primary vehicles for her story's initial preservation. Ravasz's documents, rediscovered in archives decades later, underscored the challenges of verifying individual fates in the immediate aftermath of liberation, reliant as they were on fragmented Nazi records and mission networks rather than comprehensive camp testimonies. No immediate post-war survivor accounts from Auschwitz specifically naming Haining surfaced in these early reports, though her —issued by camp authorities and received in in August 1944—had already prompted an , later contextualized by Ravasz's post-liberation clarifications.

Formal Honors and Yad Vashem Designation

Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial and research center, posthumously designated Jane Haining as Righteous Among the Nations on January 27, 1997, marking the 52nd anniversary of the Auschwitz liberation. This prestigious honor, awarded to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from Nazi persecution without expectation of reward, recognizes Haining's refusal to abandon her Jewish pupils in Budapest despite Gestapo orders and her subsequent arrest. As the only Scot to receive this designation, her name was inscribed on the Wall of Honor in Yad Vashem's Garden of the Righteous in Jerusalem, affirming her moral courage amid the Holocaust. In 2010, the British government awarded Haining the Hero of the Holocaust medal posthumously, one of the inaugural recipients of this honor established under the Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Act to commemorate non-British individuals who aided during the Shoah. The medal, presented to her relatives, was later donated to Dunscore near her birthplace, symbolizing national acknowledgment of her sacrifice. These formal recognitions underscore Haining's verified actions in shielding vulnerable children from , validated through survivor testimonies and archival evidence compiled over decades.

Memorials and Contemporary Commemorations

A memorial cairn near Dunscore Church in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, was erected in 2005 by local residents to honor Haining as a "heroic Christian martyr." The structure includes a stone reportedly sourced from Auschwitz, inscribed in her memory and that of other victims of the camp. Stained glass windows commemorating her service were installed in Queen's Park Parish Church in Glasgow, where she worshipped before her mission work. In Budapest, memorials include a plaque at the former Scottish Mission site where Haining worked, and a section of the Danube embankment named Jane Haining rakpart (quay). A brass Stolperstein, or "stumbling stone," was embedded in the pavement at the entrance to St. Columba's Church of Scotland in 2024 to mark her path and sacrifice. The City of Edinburgh Council approved installation of a similar Stolperstein in 2023 for placement in the city where Haining trained. Contemporary commemorations encompass annual events and educational initiatives. The Dunscore Heritage Centre, opened in 2018, hosts ceremonies such as the planned Memorial Day observance on January 27, 2025, involving local school pupils reciting Haining's story. Since 1991, an exchange program has brought Hungarian students annually to Dunscore, fostering ongoing remembrance of her work with Jewish children. In 2019, Haining was honored during Budapest's on Hungary's Memorial Day, with participants including the Scottish Secretary walking in her commemoration. Exhibitions, such as one at Budapest's Memorial , continue to highlight her protection of Jewish pupils.

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