Scottish righteous gentile murdered by Nazis honoured in Edinburgh

She was deported to Auschwitz, along with many of her students in May 1944, and died two months later at the age of 47 in the camp’s fatal living conditions.

Today, she was due to be honoured at St Stephen’s Church in central Edinburgh, with the unveiling of a Stolperstein - a brass plaque inscribed with the name and date of birth and death of a victim of the Nazis. In 1932, a service was held at the same church for Haining shortly before her departure for Budapest.

Angus Robertson, Edinburgh Central SNP MSP who instigated the plaque, told the BBC: “We must never forget the victims of Nazism or the lesson from history that persecution and extremism can tragically return.

“Jane Haining left Scotland for Hungary to help Jewish children and rather than save herself she tried to protect them and died in Auschwitz.

“It is right that Scotland’s first Stolperstein commemorates Jane Haining and many thanks to the City of Edinburgh Council, who have made its installation possible, and to Gunter Demnig whose Stolperstein Project has become the largest decentralised memorial in the world.”

Stolperstein, translates from German as “stumbling block”. The intention is for people to encounter the stones by stumbling across them and finding out the stories of those persecuted during the Holocaust.

The name also inverts an antisemitic phrase used in Nazi Germany - people would say “a Jew must be buried here” when tripping on a protruding stone.

She said: ‘If these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness?’

Edward Green, senior member of the Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation, said: “The Edinburgh Jewish Community are proud to be associated with the erection in Edinburgh of the Stolperstein for Jane Haining.

“Her support for Jewish children and so many others during the horrendous years of the Nazi onslaught earned her an honoured place recognised as Righteous Among The Nations in Yad Vashem.

“We remember and honour her today and for future generations and are grateful to the Scottish government for its leadership in this.”

Rt Rev Rosie Frew, moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, said: “We are delighted that a Stolperstein is installed in memory of Jane Haining [who] showed tremendous courage by continuing to look after her young charges, many of whom were orphans or abandoned by their parents, in the face of escalating danger.

“An inspirational woman of deep faith, she was fully aware of the extraordinary risks she was taking but repeatedly refused Church of Scotland pleas to leave the Hungarian capital and return home to Scotland as the war engulfed Europe.

“Jane was determined to continue doing her duty and stick to her post and famously said: ‘If these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness?’”

Since the Stolperstein project was launched by German artist Gunter Demnig in 1992, over 100,000 Stolpersteine have been laid, making it the largest decentralised memorial in the world.

There is also a Stolperstein for Haining on the pavement outside St Columba's Church of Scotland in Budapest.

The UK’s first Stolperstein was placed in London in 2022 for Ada von Dantzig, who returned to the Netherlands in 1943 to attempt to rescue her family but was murdered along with them at Auschwitz.

To date, Haining is the only Scottish person instated by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations, the title awarded to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.