Letter: Holocaust Scots

Your correspondent (Letters, 17 September) rightly draws attention to Jane Haining's life and death, which have been well chronicled in recent years.

Her work with Jewish schoolchildren in Budapest and her selfless dedication to them, which led to her death in Auschwitz, was recognised in recent years with the award of the title of Righteous Gentile, by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.

What is less well known is that she was not the only Scot to perish in Auschwitz, as your correspondent writes.

At least eight Scottish-born Jews, who had travelled back to join family members in Europe before the war, also perished in the Holocaust.

Most were born in Glasgow but there were also Jews from Edinburgh, Dundee and Paisley. Two died in Auschwitz and two at Theresienstadt, while the final place of death of the others is not recorded.

This little-known episode brings the Holocaust closer to Scots and Scotland.

(Dr) Kenneth Collins

Scottish Jewish Archives Centre

Hill Street

Glasgow