SCHOOL pupils have put on a performance celebrating a Scot who gave her life to help protect Jewish schoolgirls during the Holocaust.
Drama students at Braes High School in Polmont, Falkirk performed on Thursday, highlighting the moment Jane Haining was arrested by the Gestapo and taken away to her eventual death.
Ms Haining, who hailed from Dumfriesshire, was a matron at the Scottish Mission school in Budapest between 1932 and 1944.
The telling of her story of heroism, bravery and personal sacrifice – which resulted in her dying in Auschwitz in 1944 at the age of 47 – coincided with Holocaust Memorial Day.
It was organised by sixth year pupils Jess Reid and Callum Docherty, Holocaust Educational Trust Ambassadors for the school. They visited Auschwitz in November and addressed MSPs at the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday.
Mr Docherty said: “Jane Haining was a very strong and courageous woman and her story shows us that, amidst all that evil, people are still capable of good deeds.
“It is just an amazing thing to think about and restores my faith in humanity.”
Miss Reid said: “When you have a link to something through your own country, it makes what happened all the more real because you realise it was people like you who were there and suffered.
“Once you have an emotional connection to something you feel more empowered to teach people about it and carry the messages in your own life.”
The show was hailed by Rev Ian Alexander, secretary of the Church of Scotland’s World Mission Council.
He said the show, which was attended by more than 80 people, was fantastic and moving.
Miss Haining was repeatedly ordered by church officials to return to Scotland but refused, saying the children needed her in the “days of darkness”.
She was arrested by two Gestapo officers in Budapest and charged with working amongst Jews, listening to news broadcasts on the BBC and sending British prisoners of war parcels.
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