Auschwitz Memorial Honours Jane Haining, Scottish Missionary Killed in 1944

The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum has formally acknowledged Jane Haining as the sole Scottish individual murdered within the Nazi extermination camp. This recognition comes following a campaign to highlight Haining's sacrifice.

Haining, a Church of Scotland missionary, worked as a matron at a Scottish mission school in Budapest, Hungary. She was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944 after being denounced for sheltering Jewish pupils and criticising Nazi Germany. She subsequently died in Auschwitz that same year, aged 47.

During the Second World War, Haining consistently declined multiple opportunities to return to Scotland, prioritising the safety and welfare of the Jewish girls under her charge. Her refusal to abandon these children, even as the Axis occupation intensified and the Holocaust escalated in Hungary, underscores a profound commitment to her humanitarian duty.

The move by the Auschwitz Memorial to specifically name Haining aims to ensure her story is prominently included in the historical narrative of the camp's victims, thereby reinforcing the individual human cost of the atrocities committed.