Honour call for Glasgow missionary Jane Haining

Dec 30 2008

Jane Haining

A CAMPAIGN has been launched to award a posthumous honour to the woman dubbed 'Scotland's Schindler' for her dedication to Jewish orphans during World War Two.

Jane Haining, who worshipped at Queen's Park Church of Scotland, was a Presbyterian missionary who died after refusing to abandon young Jews in her care.

Instead of fleeing to safety, Ms Haining opted to stay at a school in Budapest, Hungary, after German forces invaded in March 1944.

She was arrested and died that August in Auschwitz.

Her spirit and bravery is recognised with two memorials which exist in Scotland. A pair of stained glass windows immortalise her work at the Queen's Park Church of Scotland in Glasgow's south side.

And a plaque exists at Dunscore Kirk, Dumfries, close to where she was born.

But now the Holocaust Educational Trust wants the honours system changed to recognise Miss Haining and others like her.

Karen Pollock, chief executive of The Holocaust Educational Trust, said it was time that the UK formally recognised her courage.

"Jane Haining could have returned to Scotland, she could have gone home," Ms Pollock said.

"She chose to be among those Jewish orphans at the risk of her own life and sadly at the sacrifice of her own life."