A commemorative event was held at Coats Paisley as part of Holocaust Memorial Day, paying tribute to Jane Haining, the Scottish missionary who risked — and ultimately lost — her life while helping Jewish and christian people during the Holocaust.
Jane Mathison Haining was born on 6 June 1897 at Lochenhead Farm near Dunscore in Dumfriesshire. She was the fifth child of Jane Mathison and Thomas John Haining, a farmer who had married in 1890. Tragedy struck early in her life when her mother died in 1902 while giving birth to the couple’s sixth child. Jane was just five years old at the time.
Her father later remarried in January 1922 but died only months later, in June of that year. Toward the end of 1922, his second wife, Robertina Maxwell, gave birth to a daughter, Agnes, leaving Jane Haining once again touched by loss at a young age.
Despite these hardships, Haining went on to dedicate her life to missionary work. In June 1932 after 10 years working at Coats Counting house in Paisley she moved to Budapest, Hungary, where she became matron of a boarding house for Jewish and Christian girls at a school run by the Scottish Mission to the Jews, under the Church of Scotland. Her role placed her in close daily contact with Jewish children at a time when antisemitism across Europe was intensifying.
After the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the Church of Scotland advised Haining to return to Britain. However, she made the conscious decision to remain in Hungary, continuing her work and refusing to abandon the girls in her care.
In March 1944, Germany invaded Hungary. The SS quickly began organising the mass deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the Nazi extermination camp in occupied Poland. Amid this escalation of terror, Haining was arrested by the Gestapo in April 1944 on a range of charges, reportedly following a dispute with the school’s cook.
She was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in May 1944. Jane Haining died there on 17 July 1944, just two months later, most likely as a result of starvation and the appalling living conditions in the camp. She was 47 years old.
In 1997, more than half a century after her death, Jane Haining was formally recognised by Yad Vashem in Israel as Righteous Among the Nations — an honour awarded to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
The event at Coats Paisley ensured that her courage, compassion and sacrifice were remembered, highlighting the enduring importance of standing up to hatred and injustice, even in the darkest of times.
Paisley Photographs 