A brass plaque has been laid in honour of a Church of Scotland missionary who died in Auschwitz during the Second World War.
Jane Haining worked as the matron at the Scottish Mission School in Budapest, Hungary, from 1932.
The school had around 400 Christian and Jewish students, including boarders aged 6 to 16 years old.
Christian Today reports Ms. Haining was arrested in April 1944 after the cook’s son-in-law informed the Germans that she was hiding Jews.
“DON’T WORRY, I’LL BE BACK BY LUNCH!”
According to former student, Agnes Rostas, as she was being taken away, the matron told the crying students, “Don’t worry, I’ll be back by lunch.”
She never made it.
Jane Haining was imprisoned before being transported to Auschwitz with Hungarian Jews the following month.
She was pressed into slave labour and a few months later was dead at the age of 47.
Her official death certificate stated that she died of cachexia (weight and muscle loss and fatigue) following intestinal catarrh, although it is likely she was killed in the gas chambers.
HONOURED BY WORLD HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE CENTER
She is one of two Scots to be declared “Righteous Among the Nations” by the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem.
The term refers to non-Jews who, at great personal risk, attempted to help or protect Jews during the Holocaust, with Oskar Schindler being perhaps the most famous example.
The new memorial to Jane Haining was placed outside the former St Stephen’s Church building in Stockbridge, Edinburgh.
PART OF EUROPE-WIDE PROJECT TO HONOUR THOSE WHO HELPED JEWS
It is part of a Europe-wide project to honour those who suffered under National Socialism.
The memorial is a ‘Stolperstein’ or ‘stumbling block’ created by the German artist Gunter Demnig.
116,000 such memorials have been laid across 31 European countries, with Ms. Haining’s the first in Scotland.
TRIBUTE TO COURAGEOUS MISSIONARY WHO PROTECTED JEWS
Right Reverend Rosie Frew, Moderator of the Church of Scotland General Assembly, paid tribute to the missionary at the unveiling of the memorial.
“We are delighted that a ‘Stolperstein’ has been laid in memory of Jane Haining,” Christian Today reports her as saying.
“An inspirational woman of deep faith, she was fully aware of the extraordinary risks she was taking, but repeatedly refused Church of Scotland pleas to leave the Hungarian capital and return home to Scotland as the war engulfed Europe.”
“Jane was determined to continue doing her duty and stick to her post and famously said: If these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness?.”
“AN ORDINARY AND EXTRAORDINARY WOMAN”
“She was simultaneously an ordinary and extraordinary woman and her story is one of heroism and personal sacrifice and reminds us that when we feel powerless, there is always something that we can do.”
“It is a fine example of service over self-interest and we hope that this honour, the first of its kind in Scotland, will help keep her memory alive for generations to come.”
Also present at the ceremony were representatives of the Haining family and of Scotland’s Jewish community.
Ms. Haining has also been honoured with a Heroine of the Holocaust medal by the British government, a stained-glass window at the church she attended, and a street and park named after her in Edinburgh.
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