Honoring Upstanders from the Holocaust: Recognition for Jane Haining

by Michelle . · 2008-12-29 20:07:00 UTC
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As Samantha Power so aptly wrote in her seminal book A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, in cases of genocide and mass atrocity, there are upstanders, and there are bystanders.

(And, of course, there are the murderous modern-day super villains that often grace the pages of this blog.)

The Holocaust Educational Trust is campaigning for the recognition of an unsung upstander of the Nazi Holocaust---a woman who, rather than returning to Scotland when she had the chance, chose to stay in Budapest with a group of Jewish orphans under her care. Jane Haining was eventually arrested by the Nazis, and perished in the gas chambers at Auschwitz.

From The Independent:

A Presbyterian missionary, Miss Haining is one of only 10 Scottish people believed to have been killed in a Nazi death camp. After the Nazis invaded Hungary in March 1944, she was ordered to leave the school in Budapest where she worked and return to Scotland.

But the 47-year-old refused, saying: "If these children need me in the days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in the days of darkness?"

Miss Haining was ordered to sew yellow Stars of David on the clothes of the orphan girls. A month later she was arrested for "offences" that included spying, working with Jews and listening to the BBC.

She admitted to all but political activity and was deported to Auschwitz, tattooed with the number 79467, along with some of her wards. She was gassed in August that year.

Michelle . has been involved in various activist endeavors, including the Teach Against Genocide pilot campaigns.
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