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Jane Haining: A Life of Love and Courage
Balances detailed research with powerful storytelling to create a well-written and heart-wrenching account' - Nicole Gemine, Press and Journal
Jane Haining was undoubtedly one of Scotland’s heroines.
A farmer’s daughter from Galloway in south-west Scotland, Jane went to work at the Scottish Jewish Mission School in Budapest in 1932, where she was a boarding school matron in charge of around 50 orphan girls. The school had 400 pupils, most of them Jewish. Jane was back in the UK on holiday when war broke out in 1939, but she immediately went back to Hungary to do all she could to protect the children at the school. She refused to leave in 1940, and again ignored orders to flee the country in March 1944 when Hungary was invaded by the Nazis. She remained with her pupils, writing 'if these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness'.
Her brave persistence led to her arrest in by the Gestapo in April 1944, for "offences" that included spying, working with Jews and listening to the BBC. She died in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz just a few months later, at the age of 47. Her courage and self-sacrifice, her choice to stay and to protect the children in her care, have made her an inspiration to many.
Jane Haining was undoubtedly one of Scotland’s heroines.
A farmer’s daughter from Galloway in south-west Scotland, Jane went to work at the Scottish Jewish Mission School in Budapest in 1932, where she was a boarding school matron in charge of around 50 orphan girls. The school had 400 pupils, most of them Jewish. Jane was back in the UK on holiday when war broke out in 1939, but she immediately went back to Hungary to do all she could to protect the children at the school. She refused to leave in 1940, and again ignored orders to flee the country in March 1944 when Hungary was invaded by the Nazis. She remained with her pupils, writing 'if these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness'.
Her brave persistence led to her arrest in by the Gestapo in April 1944, for "offences" that included spying, working with Jews and listening to the BBC. She died in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz just a few months later, at the age of 47. Her courage and self-sacrifice, her choice to stay and to protect the children in her care, have made her an inspiration to many.
240 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 11, 2019
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About the author
Mary Miller
338 books9 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 12, 2019
Jane Haining: A Life of Love and Courage is by Mary Miller. This is the amazing and yet sad story of a young woman who gave her life for young Jewish girls in Budapest, Hungary. She fought for them in Budapest and taught them discipline and love. When arrested by the Gestapo, Jane gave her life in the same manner as she lived- with dignity. But who was Jane Haining? How did she come to be the woman that she was? Mary Miller set out to try to discover who Jane really was.
This book follows Mary Miller’s research from Scotland to Budapest and beyond to uncover who this quiet yet persuasive young lady was. Mary talked to those family members who knew her best as well as those she knew as a child and a young adult to some of the women she taught as young girls who managed to survive the Holocaust. One of those girls stated that she survived because of the discipline Jane taught her. Jane refused to allow this girl to pass on eating her dinner on her first day at the school. She made her eat her dinner whether or not she liked it. She remembered this incident when faced with the horrific food in the camps and as she was taught by Jane, she ate what she was given and survived.
Jane was in charge of the home the girls lived in while attending school. Most of the girls were Jewish; but were taught as a Christian. However, Jane also made sure Judaism was also taught. Although it was the aim of her Church to get the Jews to convert, Jane was concerned with their physical and mental well-being, not spiritual. She made sure the girls had good meals to eat, lots of exercise and lots of time outdoors. She stayed even after the Church at home told her it was time to leave. She could not leave her girls.
Although there were no eyewitnesses to her treatment in Auschwitz, her life can be estimated because it is noted that she lived about a month after arriving here. Her friends and the Church did not give up their attempt to find her and save her until they received her death certificate. One reason they were unable to save her despite even the tries of Horthy, was that she was picked up by the Gestapo not the German police. This put her into an entirely different category of prisoner and one beyond their reach. However, as those who knew her best believed, she continued to behave in her normally disciplines loving manner towards others. In 1997, after much work, witnessing, and prayers, Jane was named “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem.
This book follows Mary Miller’s research from Scotland to Budapest and beyond to uncover who this quiet yet persuasive young lady was. Mary talked to those family members who knew her best as well as those she knew as a child and a young adult to some of the women she taught as young girls who managed to survive the Holocaust. One of those girls stated that she survived because of the discipline Jane taught her. Jane refused to allow this girl to pass on eating her dinner on her first day at the school. She made her eat her dinner whether or not she liked it. She remembered this incident when faced with the horrific food in the camps and as she was taught by Jane, she ate what she was given and survived.
Jane was in charge of the home the girls lived in while attending school. Most of the girls were Jewish; but were taught as a Christian. However, Jane also made sure Judaism was also taught. Although it was the aim of her Church to get the Jews to convert, Jane was concerned with their physical and mental well-being, not spiritual. She made sure the girls had good meals to eat, lots of exercise and lots of time outdoors. She stayed even after the Church at home told her it was time to leave. She could not leave her girls.
Although there were no eyewitnesses to her treatment in Auschwitz, her life can be estimated because it is noted that she lived about a month after arriving here. Her friends and the Church did not give up their attempt to find her and save her until they received her death certificate. One reason they were unable to save her despite even the tries of Horthy, was that she was picked up by the Gestapo not the German police. This put her into an entirely different category of prisoner and one beyond their reach. However, as those who knew her best believed, she continued to behave in her normally disciplines loving manner towards others. In 1997, after much work, witnessing, and prayers, Jane was named “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem.
November 2, 2019
Jane Haining was born in the village of Dunscore in Dumfriesshire in 1897 and died in Auschwitz in 1944, at the age of 47. In 1932, as a Church of Scotland missionary, she had felt called to work as matron to Jewish girls at the Church of Scotland mission and school in Budapest. A committed, compassionate and practical Christian, she continued to care for them even as the storm clouds gathered and broke over Europe. She could have left Hungary, indeed the Kirk tried to insist that she did. Jane, known as Jean to her friends and family, refused, saying: "If these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness?"
She saved many Hungarian Jews, adults and children, and got them out of the country under the noses of the Nazis. She herself was not so lucky, denounced and sent to Auschwitz where she died. Those pages are hard to read, not because they are graphic but because they are heartbreakingly sad and dignified. This biography of her is meticulously researched, beautifully written and deeply moving, setting Jane in the context of her times.
Mary Miller shows us Jane not as a saint but as a living, breathing, often laughing person at the different stages of her life, as a girl in the countryside, a schoolgirl in Dumfries and a trusted right hand woman in the offices of J & P Coats in Paisley, where she worked for several years before she went to Budapest.
Jane Haining: A Life of Love and Courage by Mary Miller is a fine biography about a fine and brave woman. She inspired many of her pupils, one of whom described her as "a shining light."
Jane Haining is remembered now at home in Scotland, in Budapest and by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Remembrance Centre, as "Righteous among the Nations."
She saved many Hungarian Jews, adults and children, and got them out of the country under the noses of the Nazis. She herself was not so lucky, denounced and sent to Auschwitz where she died. Those pages are hard to read, not because they are graphic but because they are heartbreakingly sad and dignified. This biography of her is meticulously researched, beautifully written and deeply moving, setting Jane in the context of her times.
Mary Miller shows us Jane not as a saint but as a living, breathing, often laughing person at the different stages of her life, as a girl in the countryside, a schoolgirl in Dumfries and a trusted right hand woman in the offices of J & P Coats in Paisley, where she worked for several years before she went to Budapest.
Jane Haining: A Life of Love and Courage by Mary Miller is a fine biography about a fine and brave woman. She inspired many of her pupils, one of whom described her as "a shining light."
Jane Haining is remembered now at home in Scotland, in Budapest and by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Remembrance Centre, as "Righteous among the Nations."
August 11, 2023
Before reading this book I had never heard of Jane Haining, a Scottish missionary in Hungary working in the Church of Scotland's Jewish Mission School who was arrested by the Gestapo and killed in Auschwitz in 1944.
She lived a life of faith, purpose and quiet courage.
I found this a moving and fascinating account of the life of this gentle lady, worth reading to discover her story.
It is not a perfect read however, I did find references about the how the modern reader etc may find the language and motivations of past jarring and the need of the author to almost apologise on their behalf uncomfortable and I can't help feel that she doesn't quite understand the missionary call or what living a life of faith really means
She lived a life of faith, purpose and quiet courage.
I found this a moving and fascinating account of the life of this gentle lady, worth reading to discover her story.
It is not a perfect read however, I did find references about the how the modern reader etc may find the language and motivations of past jarring and the need of the author to almost apologise on their behalf uncomfortable and I can't help feel that she doesn't quite understand the missionary call or what living a life of faith really means
March 11, 2023
This is a moving story of an ordinary, yet quite extraordinary, girl from Dumfriesshire, Scotland who demonstrated "love in action" through her work in Budapest before and during the Second World War, only to die in Auschwitz in 1944.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews