First Scottish plaque laid on St Stephen Street for Holocaust victim

Phyllis Stephen

November 24, 2025 12:01 am

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An unveiling ceremony will take place on St Stephen Street on Monday.

The first brass Stolperstein for a Scottish Holocaust victim is installed there.

The plaque will remember Jane Haining who was murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz.

The Stolperstein, or “stumbling block”, is a small brass plaque set into the pavement. It will remind passers by to remember someone who was persecuted by the Nazis. It serves as a personal and lasting memorial.

Edinburgh Central MSP, Angus Robertson, has led the project to install the plaque. He has brought together leaders from the Christian and Jewish faiths, and representatives of the Hungarian and German Governments, as well as heritage bodies.

Jane Haining

Jane Haining served as matron of the Scottish Mission School in Budapest during the 1930s and 1940s. After the outbreak of war, she supported Jewish women seeking safety, and remained in Budapest to care for the children in her charge. Many of the children had been orphaned or abandoned. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1944, Haining was deported to Auschwitz where she was killed later that year.

Her story has come to symbolise courage, compassion, and steadfast moral duty in the face of totalitarian cruelty.

Before leaving for Hungary in June 1932, a service of dedication for Haining took place at St Stephen’s Church, Stockbridge, outside which the Stolperstein is now installed.

Mr Robertson said: “We must never forget the victims of Nazism or the lesson from history that persecution and extremism can tragically return. Jane Haining left Scotland for Hungary to help Jewish children, and rather than save herself she tried to protect them and died in Auschwitz.

“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 who’s Stolperstein Project has become the largest decentralised memorial in the world.”

Moderator

Rt Rev Rosie Frew, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, said: “We are delighted that a ‘Stolperstein’ is installed in memory of Jane Haining, who was the matron of the Scottish Mission School in Budapest in the 1930s and 1940s.

“After the war broke out in 1939, she taught domestic service management to Jewish women to help them emigrate to the safety of the UK, and 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 unveiling ceremony

Members of Jane Haining’s family, including her niece, are attending the unveiling as are representatives from the Hungarian and German Consulates, alongside numerous Church of Scotland ministers and officials, leaders from other faith communities, and civic figures.

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.”

Hungarian Consul General in Scotland Dr. László Kálmán said: “Budapest has marked Jane Haining by naming part of the Danube Embankment after her, with a plaque at the Scottish Mission where she looked after Jewish children and with a Stolperstein.

“Having set off for the Hungarian capital from Edinburgh is right that she is commemorated in the Scottish capital with a Stolperstein”.

Jane Haining’s life is already marked at Dunscore Church and Queen’s Park Govanhill Church in Glasgow, and the St. Columba’s Church of Scotland and Jane Haining Embankment in Budapest.

There are more than 116,000 Stolpersteine across Europe, and this will be the first in Scotland and second in the UK. The Stolpersteine project was initiated by German artist Gunter Demnig in 1992. He continues to personally oversees the production of each stone from Berlin.