Jane Mathison Haining

Jane Haining was a Scottish missionary and teacher who was sent to a Nazi concentration camp for teaching and caring for Jewish schoolchildren in Budapest, Hungary. She died in Auschwitz in 1947; 50 years later, she was recognised by Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ for risking her life to help Jews.

Born in 1897 on a farm near Dunscore, Dumfriesshire, Jane Haining grew up as a member of the local evangelical Craig Church, part of the United Free Church of Scotland. While living and working in Glasgow, she attended a meeting given by Rev. Dr George Mackenzie, chair of the Jewish Mission Committee, and she decided that becoming a missionary would be what she called her “lifework”.

In 1932, Haining went to Budapest to serve as matron at a boarding house for girls run by the Scottish Mission to the Jews. For twelve years, she remained in Budapest, learning Hungarian, caring for and teaching the girls in the adjacent school. She was responsible for 400 children aged between six and sixteen.

Following the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Scottish missionaries were ordered to return home, but Haining stayed in Budapest to help the children under her care. In March 1944, German troops occupied Hungary and mass deportations of Jews began.

Haining, bravely standing by her students, was arrested in April. She was taken first to Foutca prison, then deported to Auschwitz where she died, probably on July 17, 1944, aged 47.