TRADE union activists will travel to Auschwitz on a study tour next week to learn about the atrocities of the Holocaust and to honour Jane Haining, the only Scottish woman known to have died in the Second World War concentration camp.
Unison representatives from across Scotland will be joined on their visit to Auschwitz by by Haining’s niece, Deirdre McDowall. During the study tour, a memorial service will be held in Birkenau, where McDowall and her husband will take part in a wreath-laying ceremony.
Those on the tour recently visited the community of Dunscore in Dumfries and Galloway and the newly opened heritage centre which commemorates Haining.
Mark Ferguson, branch secretary of Unison Renfrewshire and a member of Unison’s international committee, said: “Observing first hand the atrocities that took place instils a responsibility on us all to ensure future generations do not repeat these murderous acts.
“We’re honoured to have representatives of Jane Haining’s family joining us and helping us to commemorate her selfless bravery.
McDowell said: “I am full of awe at the prospect of visiting Auschwitz and seeing Block 9 where Jane Haining was held before her death.”
Haining was a Church of Scotland missionary who became matron of the Scottish Mission School in Budapest, where she was arrested after the 1944 Nazi occupation of Hungary.
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