7 November 2025

Jane Haining is one of our kirk martyrs. In 1932, she became the Matron at the Church of Scotland Mission to the Jews in Budapest. She was responsible for the well-being of the boarders at this well-respected school in Hungary.

The school catered for Christian and Jewish girls and Jane brought a lot of common sense, administrative skill, practical faith and compassion into the institution. She was greatly  admired and loved by staff and pupils alike in the school.

When the Nazis invaded Hungary and started to round up the Jews, she became more vulnerable. She refused to return to Scotland preferring to stay and look after the girls. She was eventually betrayed by the son of the cook who had to be dismissed because of new Nazi laws.

He wanted to live in his mother’s room in the boarding house. Jane refused. The house was full of girls. It was really a Safeguarding issue although it wouldn’t have been put into that context in those days. She wisely did a mental risk assessment and judged the situation well.

She was imprisoned and was eventually taken to Auschwitz. In her last words, famously to be found in a letter to the head teacher, she writes, ‘Even here on the road to heaven there are mountains, further away than ours to be sure, but still.’

The mountains of Buda were important to Jane. Whenever she returned to the Mission, she participated in a little ritual. ‘I always stop here before I enter and say – I lift up mine eyes to the mountains, whence comes my help. Sela.’ Our help comes from God. Like the strength of the hills, it is to be found in silence and stillness.