JANE Haining, a farmer’s daughter from Dunscore, Dumfriesshire, is a name that has become well-known in recent years. She was the only known Scot to have died in Auschwitz, having been taken by the Gestapo in 1944 when she was matron in charge of girls at the Scottish Mission in Budapest. She refused to leave the girls, most of whom were Jewish, even after receiving instructions from Edinburgh to leave Hungary.
Posthumously, one of the commemorations awarded to Jane was "Righteous Among the Nations". This is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe all of the non-Jews who, for purely altruistic reasons, risked their lives in order to save Jews from being exterminated by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust.
The Righteous Among the Nations are comprised of people from diverse background. There are Christians from all denominations, as well as Muslims and atheists. As at August 10, 2023, the award has been made to 28,217 people, including 22 from the UK, and is still being made as new cases come to light.
I have some questions.
If alive today, how would those people who have been awarded, including Jane, feel about what is happening in Gaza? I am sure that Jane, for example, would offer her love, courage and devotion to the people of Gaza as she did to the Jewish girls in Hungary, and the same could probably be said about the others. I do not imagine, however, that she would use the word "proportionate" or agree with the term "right to defend itself" given the extent of Israel’s reaction since that shocking event on October 7.
How can the State of Israel live with itself given that it is now doing to others as they had done to themselves during the Holocaust? Do two wrongs make a right? Is the Israeli government so far detached from the will of those who are still awarding Righteous Among the Nations medals to people who were altruistic towards Jews, when they themselves are effectively doing to the people of Gaza what the Nazis did to them?
Why is the UK Government not calling for a ceasefire? Can it explain to us why the reasons for being an ally to Israel rank higher than the urgent need to call a halt to the genocide that is taking place right now?
Would Jane and the other recipients of the medal see the sheer hypocrisy of continuing to issue Righteous Among the Nations medals, on one hand, whilst carrying out genocide, starving tens of thousands of people, talking about Israeli settlements replacing the population of Gaza (ethnic cleansing) and ignoring UN calls for a ceasefire, on the other?
I have no doubt that they would.
Dennis White, Blackwood.
How to improve our town centres
KEVIN McKenna’s piece on Sauchiehall Street ("Once-iconic city spot is now a zombie landscape", The Herald, January 8) was spot on whilst depressing and very frustrating. Myself and many others have written dozens of letters on the demise of our once-wonderful city of Glasgow. Before we even address redevelopment there are a number of steps the council could take for starters.
1. Clean the streets; 2, take proper care of flower beds and plants; 3, encourage, not discourage, free parking and review the proliferation of bus and cycle lanes; 4, force property owners to maintain empty properties to a decent standard; 5, reduce rates to encourage more new businesses.
Above all, show some pride in our city.
One of the most attractive things about Silverburn, The Forge and Braehead is the free parking and easy access to shops. Why on earth do the plans for Sauchiehall Street and Buchanan Street include the demolition of the Buchanan Galleries?
Having lived in Ayr for over 30 years I’ve witnessed the similar destruction of Ayr town centre, which is now a desperate mess of closed shops, pop-ups and without the various charity shops and barbers it would be a ghost town.
Read more: Sauchiehall Street could pass for a zombie apocalypse set
The council recently spent a fortune creating a beautiful area at the bottom of the High Street with a walk-in facility that overlooks the river. All very nice but I doubt if it will raise one penny of revenue or encourage any shoppers to come into Ayr.
We need proper expertise and investment to change things. It can’t be left yet again in the hands of councillors to decide.
However, Prestwick town centre has proved that working with local businesses and investing in the infrastructure whilst ensuring the streets are clean, safe and the gardens and flower baskets are always lovely can bring commercial success despite online shopping.
Finally, we the public could also help by not throwing litter away with gay abandon.
John Gilligan, Ayr.
Energy policy makes no sense
MID-MORNING today (11.20, January 8) Scotland is having to import 679MW from rUK to keep our lights on and infrastructure such as hospitals, car charging, fuel stations, banking and much of our rail network running. This is more than half the output of Torness nuclear power station, which is today on full power but scheduled to close in 2028.
UK demand is high given the northerly cold and calm and southerly dull wet and stormy weather across the UK at almost 44,000MW. Wind generation has again collapsed in Scotland, with UK solar output in the largely cloudy weather in England producing only 2.62% of our needs.
Imports via the French, Dutch, Norway and Viking interconnectors are negligible at 1.23% of our needs presumably because they have no spare power to sell us and as a result we have restarted coal generation and are maxing out on polluting biomass burning which we subsidise by circa £10 million a week, plus we are providing 52.3% of our needs from gas-fired generation.
Conclusion? Let's rapidly close down the North Sea and accelerate transitioning to wind and solar.
Some of the electorate might find this strategy unconvincing.
DB Watson, Cumbernauld.
Read more: Rise in the number of shops selling vapes should worry us all
Notable stuff
I'VE been sorting through some old stuff in the house, as you do this time of year. Two things of note: a series of Glasgow Herald Perspective articles from 1975 on “Satanism in Scotland” (Iain Gray), a subject which pops up repeatedly, though I have yet to meet one. The other was a mislaid “cheer me up” card from the wonderful Thelma Edwards, sent when I was receiving abusive mail. A lovely gesture from a most lovely person. Thank you, Thelma.
Anyone else found interesting “stuff”?
GR Weir, Ochiltree.
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