AN ORDINARY person who became extraordinary through her love and commitment to protecting threatened school pupils in her care.
That was the apt description given at Westminster of Dunscore heroine Jane Haining, who died in a Nazi extermination camp after being arrested by the Gestapo for trying to protect Hungarian Jewish children.
The deeply moving story was recalled in the House of Commons last week by Dumfriesshire MP David Mundell in a special debate to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, the theme this year being ‘ordinary people.’
Mr Mundell told silent and attentive colleagues that following the German invasion of Budapest when Jane Haining was arrested in April, 1944 at the Church of Scotland mission school where she was a matron and teacher, she tried to reassure pupils by saying ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be back by lunch.’
Sadly, she was never to return.
Following interrogation at a Budapest police station she was taken to the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
Mr Mundell said: “Like almost all who arrived at the camp at the time, Jane died within a few weeks, at just 47, in conditions that few can comprehend. The only Scot to die in the Holocaust, she in a very literal sense gave her life for others.”
After leaving Dumfries Academy, Jane worked as a secretary before becoming a Church of Scotland missionary in Budapest at the Scottish Mission School and boarding house for Jewish and Christian girls and, as dangers grew, helped arrange evacuation to safe countries.
“Persecution led some Hungarian Jews to believe that it was necessary to leave their homeland, and Jane was instrumental in preparing children for a new life in Britain, teaching them about our domestic and social peculiarities,” explained Mr Mundell.
“Even before the start of World War II the Church of Scotland had repeatedly advised Jane to leave Budapest for her own safety but she refused.
“Writing after her final visit home to Dunscore in 1939, she said ‘if these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me now.’
“It is testament to Jane that it was the children’s needs that were always her concern and not her own safety.”
Earlier, Mr Mundell was amongst MPs signing a Book of Commitment, remembering millions of Jews and other victims killed by the Nazis and paying tribute to survivors and their successors tirelessly educating young people on what happened.
Meanwhile, last Friday, a short commemoration was held to mark Holocaust Memorial Day at the commemorative cairn to Jane Haining outside Dunscore Church.
It was led by Kirk member Pam Mitchell and was attended by pupils from both Dunscore Primary School and Dumfries Academy.
Pam is also a member of the Jane Haining Project committee which is working to raise awareness of her story and is helping fund a teacher who will work in schools across Scotland.
