SHE died as prisoner 79467 in notorious Auschwitz concentration camp more than 70 years ago. Now unpublished photographs and the handwritten will have been discovered of Jane Haining, the only Scot officially honoured for giving her life to protect Jewish people during the Holocaust.
Sometimes known as “Scotland’s Schindler” after the German industrialist credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews, Haining was 47 when she died in July 1944.
She had travelled to Hungary in 1932 to work as a matron in the Jewish Mission School run by the Church of Scotland in Budapest. When war broke out she ignored orders to return to Scotland, staying on to care for the vulnerable youngsters, many of whom were orphans.
Haining, a farmer’s daughter who grew up near Dunscore, Dumfries and Galloway, managed to keep dozens of girls safe for four years despite living under surveillance, only being discovered when she was betrayed by the son-in-law of the school’s cook. He informed the authorities after she caught him eating scarce food meant for the girls.
Haining, who was fluent in Hungarian and German, was arrested by two Gestapo officers and given 15 minutes to gather her belongings before being charged with eight offences. These included working among Jews, weeping when seeing the girls attend classes wearing Nazi-ordered yellow stars to denote their faith, and listening to BBC news broadcasts.
She was further charged with dismissing her housekeeper, having many British visitors, being active in politics, visiting British prisoners of war and sending them parcels.
Haining and many of her girls were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. Her name is inscribed near Oskar Schindler’s on the Holocaust memorial at Yad Vashem in Israel.
The previously unpublished material about Haining was found in a box in an archive at the Church offices in Edinburgh. This weekend marks the 175th anniversary of the Church of Scotland Mission in Budapest, which was home to a sizeable Jewish population in the 1930s. The box’s contents will be given to the National Library of Scotland.
They include several documents outlining efforts to try to secure her release and around 70 photographs of the school pupils and staff on the shore of Lake Balaton in western Hungary, where they spent summers in a rented villa.
The Rev Ian Alexander, secretary of the Church of Scotland World Mission Council, said: “Jane Haining’s story is one of heroism and personal sacrifice. The most poignant discovery is her last will and testament which says ‘to be opened in the event of my death’ and is dated July, 1942. It is a wonderful document which gives a sense that she was fully aware of the risks she was taking.
“Scottish missionaries were advised to return home from Europe during the dark days of the Second World War but Jane declined and wrote ‘if these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness’.
“It is vitally important to remember her because she embodies so much of the internationalist spirit and has a great legacy.”
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