Secretary of State for Scotland, David Mundell MP has led the 2019 March of the Living in Budapest to commemorate Scot, Jane Haining who was brought up in Dumfriesshire and who was taken to the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp in 1944 where she was later murdered by the Nazis at the age of 47.
The March of the Living is Hungary’s Holocaust Memorial Day and this year’s event was dedicated to Scottish Missionary, Haining for protecting Jewish children from the Nazis.
She was employed at the Scottish Mission School in Budapest and ignored warnings that she should return to Scotland in 1940 over fears for her safety and again selflessly refused to leave Hungary when Nazi Germany invaded in 1944 stating that the children needed her ‘in days of darkness’.
She is the only Scot to be honoured as ‘righteous among the nations’ by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial centre in Jerusalem – the description given to those who were non-Jewish but risked their own lives and safety to protect Jews against the Nazi menace.
Eastwood MSP, Jackson Carlaw and East Renfrewshire MP, Paul Masterton have welcomed the Secretary of State’s role in leading this year’s memorial and have paid tribute to Haining. The march took place on 14th April.
Eastwood MSP, Jackson Carlaw said:
“The Secretary of State for Scotland, David Mundell MP led this year’s March of the Living Memorial in Hungary to honour the memory of Scot, Jane Haining who paid the ultimate sacrifice for refusing to leave the Jewish children in her care to return home.
“The selfless actions of Jane Haining is an example to us all and it is fitting that this year’s March of the Living was dedicated to her.
“I was privileged to visit her memorial at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem where Jane’s name is inscribed on the walls of honour at the Garden of the Righteous.”
East Renfrewshire MP, Paul Masterton added:
“Jane Haining’s story is one of remarkable courage and bravery.
“It is absolutely right that the ultimate sacrifice she made in the 1940s has been honoured in such a way at the Budapest March of the Living Memorial.”