A plaque commemorating the life and sacrifice of Scottish Christian woman, Jane Haining, has been unveiled at Auschwitz.
Haining was born in Dumfriesshire in 1897. In 1932 she moved to Hungary to serve as matron of the Scottish Mission School in Budapest. The school was run by the Scottish Mission to the Jews, an arm of the Church of Scotland.
When war broke out in 1939, the Church of Scotland advised Haining to return to Scotland. Instead, she opted to stay and watch over her charges, many of whom were Jewish. She said, “If these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness?”
Shortly after Germany’s occupation of Hungary in 1944, it is believed that Haining was reported to German authorities following an argument. Despite telling the children she would “be back by lunch”, she was in fact sent to Auschwitz, where she died two months later at the age of 47.
The plaque commemorating Haining is one of many that have been added to a new display at the Auschwitz Birkenau Memorial and Museum, a long corridor containing the names of hundreds of those killed, but who had no registration photograph taken or whose photograph was subsequently lost or destroyed.
A spokesman for Auschwitz Birkenau Memorial and Museum said, “The corridor has two important purposes. It restores individual names and identities to people who were imprisoned and killed in Auschwitz, but it also helps visitors understand the complexity of the prisoner population.
“Prisoners came from many different countries, communities, backgrounds and groups. By presenting hundreds of individual names together, the exhibition shows both the scale of persecution and the diversity of the people who experienced the camp.”
Deirdre MacDowell, Haining's niece, commented, “To see Jane’s name on a permanent memorial wall makes one ask how is it that she came to be in Auschwitz? And that’s the beginning of her story and it can be told to all who ask about her.
“Her story is humbling, full of compassion and kindness and makes us think about how we live our own lives - it is a legacy for us all.”
