The last written words of a woman with a "heart of gold" who risked her life to protect Jewish orphans during the war have been discovered.

The last will and testament of Jane Haining, along with more than 70 photographs of the Jewish girls she risked her life to protect, have been uncovered in a church archive in Edinburgh.

Jane, a matron in a girl's home in Budapest during the war, died in a notorious German death camp after refusing to leave the Jewish girls in her care.

Rev Ian Alexander, secretary of the Church of Scotland World Mission Council, says the story of Jane Haining - who died in the same camp as some of "her" Jewish girls - was heartbreaking but also truly inspirational.

"Her story is one of heroism and personal sacrifice," he says.

"Scottish missionaries were advised to return home from Europe during the dark days of the Second World War but Jane declined and wrote 'if these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness."

Miss Haining, as she was known to her girls, was born in 1897 and grew up on a farm near Dunscore in Dumfriesshire.

She worked as a secretary at threadmaker company J&P Coates Ltd in Paisley before she moved to Budapest in 1932 to work as a matron in the Jewish Mission School.

Despite being under surveillance by the Nazis, the blue eyed "house mother" with a heart of gold managed to keep the children safe for four long years of hardship until she was betrayed by the cook's son-in-law whom she caught eating scarce food intended for the girls.

Jane, a former top pupil at Dumfries Academy, was arrested by two Gestapo officers at the Scottish Mission - they gave her 15 minutes to gather her belongings - and charged her with eight offences.

She was accused of working amongst the Jews; weeping when seeing the girls attend class wearing the yellow stars; dismissing her housekeeper; listening to news broadcasts on the BBC; having many British visitors; being active in politics; visiting British prisoners of war and sending British prisoners of war parcels.

Jane vehemently denied talking about or meddling in politics but was taken away and sent as a slave labourer to Auschwitz - the world's most notorious extermination camp.

As part of the new material recently uncovered, Jane's last written words, written in the prison camp itself, give some insight into her thoughts during the last few days of her life.

The last letter she wrote - a missive written in German and in pencil to Miss Margit Prem, the Hungarian headteacher who ran the Scottish Mission in Budapest, was scribbled on a letter-form headed Konzenstrationslager Auschwitz.

It was dated July 15, 1944 - two days before she died.

Margit, what are you thinking of doing with the flour? What is upstairs is the best... Have you used up the eggs too?"

I think of you day and night lovingly and longingly. I am waiting of news of what everyone is doing, including your family, Margit. Is your old aunt still alive?

There is not much to report from here.

Even here on the way to Heaven are mountains, but further away than ours. I send appropriate greetings to the whole family and kiss and embrace you.

Your loving Jean.

At least 1.1 million people died in the Auschwitz concentration camps, some of which were equipped with gas chambers, but the true circumstances behind Jane's death are unclear.

According to her death certificate, she died of "cachexia following intestinal catarrh".

One of the other documents uncovered though, reveals the level of attempts made by others to try and save her from her fate.

An extract from a report delivered to the Reformed Church in Hungary's Synod in 1945 - around 12 months after Jane had died - shows that even the highest levels of British government were approached to try and rescue her.

"It reveals that Bishop Laszlo Ravasz approached the Prime Minister's office to try to have Jane freed, but it seems either he was not listened to or that the Nazis had already had her moved out of the local prison so as to prevent any local attempts to free her," says Rev. Alexander.

"In his address to the Synod he said 'her superiors three times ordered her home, but she always replied that the Hungarian people were so true-hearted, honourable, and chivalrous that among them not a hair on her head would be touched.

"'I shall continue to do my duty,' she declared, 'and stick to my post'."

The rev says Jane, who went to a market at 5am most days to buy food for the girls and cut up her leather luggage to make soles for their worn out shoes, is an "incredibly important figure" in Scottish history and he would like to see the school curriculum better developed to highlight her story.

"It is vitally important to remember Jane Haining because she embodies so much of the internationalist spirit and has a great legacy," he says.

"It is part and parcel of the Church of Scotland and it is great today that we still have this link with the Reformed Church in Hungary and still work with them on contemporary issues."

The letter and the report, along with the other new material, was recently re-discovered in a box in the World Mission Council's archive at the Church offices in Edinburgh.

The find included her handwritten will, previously unpublished photographs and a ring with red and black stones that personally belonged to prisoner 79467 in the days before she left Scotland.

Many of the new images were taken of Jane and the girls she cared for on the shore of Lake Balaton where summer holidays were spent in a rented villa.

Jane officially died a Christian martyr on July 17, 1944 at the age of 47.

In 1997, after a ten-year investigation by an Israeli board, Jane was named as Righteous Among the Nations in Jerusalem's sacred Yad Vashem holocaust memorial in Israel - the only Scot to be officially honoured.

She also has a memorial cairn at Dunscore Church and was awarded a Hero of the Holocaust medal by the UK Government in 2010.

Her last will and testament, along with the other artefacts, are now set to be handed over to the National Library of Scotland.

Rev Susan Brown, minister at Dornoch Cathedral in the Highlands and convener of the Europe Committee of the World Mission Council, says: "The previously unseen documents and photographs have, for me, evoked fresh feelings of awe about this already tremendously moving, inspiring and important story.

"To hear of Jane's determination to continue to care for 'her' girls, even when she knew it put her own life at risk, is truly humbling."