Brass memorial for Scottish Holocaust victim unveiled in Edinburgh
Published on 24 November 2025 5 minutes read
A Church of Scotland school matron who died in Auschwitz after refusing to abandon Jewish girls in her care has been honoured with a brass memorial in Edinburgh.
The plaque in memory of Jane Haining, laid in a pavement outside the former St Stephen's Church building in Stockbridge, was unveiled today.
The Stolperstein, or "stumbling block", is the first to be installed in Scotland and in addition to being a commemoration, it serves as a warning to never forget the lessons of history.
Created by German artist Gunter Demnig, Stolpersteins are dedicated to someone persecuted by the Nazis and 116,000 have already been laid in 31 European countries.
Miss Haining took on the role of matron at the Scottish Mission School in Budapest, Hungary in 1932.
It had around 400 day and boarder pupils aged from 6-16 years old, a mixture of Jews and Christians.
The matron helped keep the children safe until she was betrayed by the cook's son-in-law, whom she scolded for taking scarce food meant for the girls, and arrested by German officers in April 1944.
Former pupil Agnes Rostas witnessed her arrest and revealed in 2016 that her haunting last words to sobbing children were "Don't worry, I'll be back by lunch".
But Miss Haining never returned to the school and was charged with eight separate offences and jailed in Budapest before being transported along with Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz in Nazi-occupied Poland on 14 May, 1944.
She was given the number 79467 and forced to work as a slave labourer but only survived a few months.
The matron was 47 and her death certificate said she died in hospital, succumbing to cachexia following intestinal catarrh, on 17 July but it is likely she died in a gas chamber.
She was subsequently recognised as ‘Righteous Among the Nations' at Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem, the only Scot to be given the honour.
A farmer's daughter from Dunscore in Dumfriesshire, she trained at St Colm's Women Missionary College in Edinburgh and her dedication service took place in the former St Stephen's Church building the day before she left for Budapest in June 1932.
The unveiling ceremony this afternoon was attended by dozens of people of different faiths and none who gathered to pay respect to the "ordinary yet extraordinary woman" who gave her life to protect Jewish girls.
Rt Rev Rosie Frew, Moderator of the General Assembly, addressed the gathering and helped unveil the memorial.
"We are delighted that a ‘Stolperstein' has been laid in memory of Jane Haining, who was the matron of the Scottish Mission School in Budapest in the 1930s and 1940s," she said.
"After the Nazis rose to power she taught domestic service management to Jewish women to help them emigrate to the safety of the UK, and when the war broke out in 1939 she 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?'.
"She was simultaneously an ordinary and extraordinary woman and her story is one of heroism and personal sacrifice and reminds us that when we feel powerless, there is always something that we can do.
"It is a fine example of service over self-interest and we hope that this honour, the first of its kind in Scotland, will help keep her memory alive for generations to come."
The installation was instigated by Edinburgh Central SNP MSP Angus Robertson and brought together leaders from the Christian and Jewish faiths, representatives of the Hungarian government and members of the Haining family.
He said: "We must never forget the victims of Nazism or the lesson from history that persecution and extremism can tragically return.
"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."
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."
Deirdre MacDowell, whose mother Agnes O'Brien, was the matron's half sister, laid a yellow rose beside the memorial as a symbol of peace.
She said: "It was a very moving day, the unveiling of the first Stolperstein in Scotland in memory of Jane.
"She was a very humble person and would have not liked all this attention but people need to learn from her story.
"They need to hear her story, the fact this plaque is here in the pavement will be a talking point.
"It is great that so many people from interfaith traditions attended the unveiling.
"Jane would have been so pleased because that is what she was all for herself, she did not differentiate between religions.
"This is what the future must be about, that we can all live together in harmony."
A Stolperstein in memory of Miss Haining was embedded in the pavement at the entrance of St Columba's Church of Scotland in Budapest directly next door to the former Scottish Mission School, in 2024.
Her selfless bravery in protecting the children in her care at the expense of her own life led to her being posthumously awarded a Heroine of the Holocaust medal by the UK Government.
Miss Haining's life is celebrated in an exhibition at Dunscore Church and Queen's Park Govanhill Church in Glasgow – the church she attended while living in the city prior to her move to Budapest.
The church has stained glass windows in her memory.
In 2021, a new street called ‘Haining Park' near Loanhead in Midlothian was named for her.
