NEWS RELEASES

Jane Haining - Play Casts New Light On ‘The Scottish Schindler’

A new play casts a spotlight on the life of the Church of Scotland missionary Jane Haining, sometimes referred to as “The Scottish Schindler”. The play breaks fresh ground in our understanding of Jane’s work with Jewish children, mostly orphans, in Budapest and her subsequent murder in Auschwitz. Jane is the only Scot recognised as 'Righteous Among Nations' at Yad Vashem the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.

A Promised Land by Raymond Raszkowski Ross begins in Scotland in 1947 when Israel is struggling to be born and Britain is fighting a rearguard action against Jewish insurgents in Palestine. Rivka Feldman, a Holocaust survivor and Jane’s friend, has entered Scotland illegally, armed with a gun. Rivka’s fictionalised story becomes firsthand testimony to Jane’s true life courage, as the play takes us back to Budapest and to Auschwitz in 1944.

A deal of confusion still surrounds the outcome of Jane’s protection of the children at the Mission Home in Hungary and the manner of her death in Auschwitz. It now seems certain that the children were not deported to Auschwitz (as has sometimes been reported) either along with Jane or in the period immediately following her arrest in April 1944. Most, therefore, would have survived the Holocaust though, tragically, Jane would not have known that her delaying tactics had been successful.

The camp authorities at Auschwitz informed the Church of Scotland that prisoner number 79467, Jane Haining, died in the camp hospital on July 17th 1944 of “cachexia brought on by intestinal catarrh” (a condition associated with starvation). But it is far more likely that, having survived some three months in Auschwitz-Birkenau, she was gassed in August with a transport of Hungarian Jews, all women.

The eminent historian Sir Martin Gilbert has assisted the playwright in this research which will be added with a text of the play to the testimony supporting Jane's ascription at Yad Vashem.

Theatre Objektiv and the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh, who are producing A Promised Land, are hopeful that this will encourage the British and Scottish governments in their efforts to honour Jane Haining posthumously.

The play raises many other contemporary issues of racism and refugee status in a challenging way through this controversial yet inspiring Scottish story.

Scotland’s Unsung Heroine
A world premiere at the Scottish Storytelling Centre brings together the winning team of Edinburgh writer Raymond Raszkowski Ross, director Donald Smith, and city actors Corinne Harris and John McColl.

Ross, Smith and Harris were all part of The Old Quarter, which opened the Storytelling Centre’s new theatre in 2006. Edinburgh-born McColl, a longstanding city journalist and nephew of the late Roy Kinnear, has just launched his new professional stage career.

Focus though is not on the creative team but the subject of A Promised Land, Jane Haining, the unsung Scottish hero who saved dozens of Hungarian children from the gas chambers, but was herself murdered in Auschwitz.
Jane’s life is viewed through the eyewitness lens of 1947 Scotland. There is a Europe-wide refugee crisis, bitter conflict in Palestine, and the British Empire is crumbling. Yet amidst it all the influence of a quiet young woman, who unintentionally became one of the twentieth century’s greatest Scots, is still being felt.

‘A Promised Land will highlight the courageous work of Jane Haining.'    The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown

‘The shock for me has been discovering new information about Jane’s death and her achievements.'     Raymond Raszkowski Ross

‘This is a story that has to be told.'.    Donald Smith

‘It’s the most challenging role I have undertaken.'    Corinne Harris

‘I performed so often at the old Netherbow Theatre it is an honour to launch my professional career here with a play of such outstanding worth.'    John McColl

A Promised Land opens at The Scottish Storytelling Centre on Thursday 20th August at 7.30pm and runs till Saturday 29th August.

PRESS CONTACTS
Playwright: Raymond Raszkowski Ross 07851 943594 raymond@rross68.freeserve.co.uk
Director: Donald Smith 0131 652 3271 donald@scottishstorytellingcentre.com
Administrator: Lita Murray 01890 761632 e.murray14@btinternet.com