JANE Haining’s life began on a farm in the Dumfriesshire hills, but ended behind the barbed wire fences of the most notorious Nazi death camp.
That was in Auschwitz in 1944 when the Church of Scotland missionary was only 47.
The sole Scot to be officially honoured for giving her life trying to protect Jews from the Holocaust, new light is now being shed on her remarkable story following the discovery of a handwritten will, letters and around 70 photographs.
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Ms Haining was just five years old when her mother died, leaving her to care for her younger sisters. This selfless spirit was echoed years later when she began looking after Jewish schoolgirls, many of them orphans, in the church-run school where she worked in Budapest, Hungary.
In the march to the Second World War, the Church of Scotland became increasingly concerned about the safety of its missionaries as Germany invaded Poland and Hungary became ever more closely allied with the Axis powers of Germany and Italy.
Ms Haining was urged to return home. She refused.
“If these children needed me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in these days of darkness?” she wrote.
It was a decision that would cost her her life.
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Ms Haining had travelled to Budapest in 1932 to work as a matron in the Mission School, caring for its 315 pupils, 48 of whom were boarders.
It was a long way from her secretarial job in Paisley at a
thread-making company J&P Coates Ltd.
Fluent in Hungarian and German, she was arrested for working among Jews, listening to the BBC and allegedly sending parcels to British prisoners of war.
Gestapo officers gave her 15 minutes to gather her belongings.
Rev Ian Alexander, Secretary of the Church of Scotland World Mission Council, said: “Jane Haining was a matron in the girl’s home of the Scottish Mission and her story is one of heroism and personal sacrifice.”
Now a priceless archive of her possessions, which includes several documents outlining efforts to try and secure her release from the death camp, provides a deeper glimpse into the life of a quiet farmer’s daughter who died a Christian martyr in July, 1944.
A ring with red and black stones that personally belonged to prisoner 79467 in the days before she left Scotland has also been recently unearthed.
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“The most poignant discovery is her last will and testament which says ‘to be opened in the event of my death’ and dated July, 1942,” said Mr Alexander, who revealed the items would be donated to the National Library of Scotland.
He said: “It states, in her own handwriting, ‘I, Jane Mathieson Haining being in my right mind, do hereby with my own hand give directions for the disposal of my possessions in the event of my death’.
“She lays out what her legacies are to be and who is to receive her wireless, typewriter, fur coat and watches.
“It is a wonderful document and tremendously exciting to have something that Jane Haining herself has written.
“It gives a sense she was fully aware of the risks she was taking.”
This weekend marks the 175th anniversary of the Church of Scotland Mission in Budapest, where a street has been named after her.
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