Jane Haining's name added to Auschwitz memorial wall for Holocaust victims
Quick Look
- Jane Haining, a Scottish missionary who died in Auschwitz after refusing to abandon Jewish children in her care, has been honored with a name plaque at the Auschwitz Birkenau Memorial and Museum.
- Her name is now displayed in a renewed section of the main exhibition dedicated to prisoners without registration photographs.
- Haining, matron at the Church of Scotland school in Budapest from 1932 to 1944, stayed to protect approximately 400 Jewish and Christian girls despite offers to return home.
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Why It Matters
Jane Haining was a Scottish missionary who served as matron at the Church of Scotland school in Budapest from 1932 to 1944, caring for Jewish and Christian girls. After the outbreak of World War II in 1939, she chose to remain in Budapest despite multiple opportunities to return to Scotland, stating that the children needed her more in times of darkness. She was arrested by German officers in April 1944 and deported to Auschwitz, where she died in July 1944.
The name of a Scot who died in the Holocaust after refusing to abandon Jewish children in her care has been added to a special memorial wall at Auschwitz.
Jane Haining is recognised in a renewed section of the Auschwitz Birkenau Memorial and Museum's main exhibition - devoted to hundreds of prisoners for whom no registration photographs were taken.
The new name plaques adorn the wall of a long corridor and are displayed next to many images of prisoners dressed in striped shirts with shaved heads.
Haining's death certificate said she died in hospital on 17 July 1944, aged 47, but it is widely accepted she died in a gas chamber and her remains are on the Auschwitz site.
Born and raised in the village of Dunscore in the south of Scotland, Haining was the matron at a Church of Scotland school in Budapest from 1932 to 1944.
The Scottish Mission School had around 400 day and boarder pupils aged from six to 16 years old, a mixture of Jewish and Christian girls.
The Church of Scotland said she helped keep the children safe for more than four years after the war broke out in 1939.
Despite numerous offers to return home she stayed on, saying: "If these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness?"
She was arrested by German officers in April 1944 and taken to Auschwitz the following month.
Open Questions
- What specific circumstances led to Jane Haining's arrest by German officers in April 1944?
- Are there any surviving testimonies or records from the children she protected at the Scottish Mission School in Budapest?
- How was the decision made to include Jane Haining's name in the renewed section of the Auschwitz memorial dedicated to prisoners without registration photographs?
