article: It comes shortly after the 120th anniversary of Jane Haining's birth in Dunscore in June 1897. Magda Birraux attended the Scottish Mission boarding school in Budapest, Hungary between 1933 and 1939. Ms Haining was arrested by the Nazis while looking after Jewish girls at the school and died in Auschwitz in 1944. Ms Birraux said: "She was wonderful and looked after all of us very well, morning and night. "She was even-tempered, tall, strict but fair and always set a good example. "Miss Haining had a very good sense of justice and always treated the pupils (Jews and Christians) equally." Ms Birraux, the daughter of small business owners, enrolled as a boarder when she was 12. She said the matron was a highly competent financial manager who arranged weekend excursions for "her" girls for "no extra charge". Ms Birraux, a Hungarian-Christian, said: "No girl was ever dismissed on account of her parents being unable to afford fees. "Miss Haining kept uniforms which girls had outgrown and gave them to less well-off parents." The former pupil, who now lives in Lausanne, Switzerland and attends the Scots Kirk, said the boarding house was run independently from the school, which had 12 teachers. "The pupils were taught secretarial skills, English, German and Hungarian," she recalled. "We went skating in the winter, to gymnastics lessons, museums and to the cinema to watch films starring Deanna Durbin, Shirley Temple and Judy Garland. "Miss Haining took us for long walks in the woods and to tearooms for tea and cookies. "She paid for everything." Ms Birraux said Jewish children in Budapest were discriminated against from 1933 but the matron, who started working at the school in 1932, made sure that the girls in her charge "were not affected". "She loved these girls very much and was like a second mother to them," she added. "Many of them were separated from their parents and so Miss Haining wanted to give them all the love that she could." Ms Birraux recalled that boarders rose at 06:30 and had to bathe in cold water to save the school money. "Lessons began at 8am and the first one was Biblical Knowledge," she said. "Miss Haining always said grace before each meal. "And when we had lunch at 12.30pm, she would examine our hands and nails before we ate to ensure they were clean." The Church of Scotland advised missionaries to return home from Europe during World War Two. But Ms Haining repeatedly refused and wrote: "If these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness". Ms Birraux said she remembered the day she heard a minister at the school arguing with Ms Haining over her determination to stay in Budapest. "We had a minister called Mr Knight (Rev George AF Knight) and he lived in the house with his wife and child before the war broke out," she recalled. "He told Miss Haining that he was joining the Army as a chaplain and asked her to give up her job, leave everything
summary: A 96-year-old former pupil of a Scots missionary who died in Auschwitz has shared her memories of her "second mother".