Place to Hide

Theodore “Teddy” Hartigan is the scion of a wealthy Washington, D.C. family, settled into a comfortable job at the State Department and a placid diplomat’s career. Then in 1938, as Hitler’s inexorable rise continues, he is assigned to the US Consulate in Amsterdam. Teddy’s job is to process visa applications, and by 1939, refugees from Nazi-conquered Poland, Austria, and other countries are desperate to secure safe passage to America. As Hitler sweeps through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, and Holland, the screws tighten and law after virulent law is passed to threaten the lives of Jews. When Teddy and his girlfriend Sara are introduced to an orphaned girl named Katy, who has been abandoned on the grounds of a nursery school, they agree to adopt her. But Teddy realises that he holds the key to saving lives, whether five, fifty, or five hundred - and makes the dangerous decision to join with underground groups and use his position at the Consulate to rescue those with no other avenue of escape. Powerful and dramatic, National Jewish Book Award winner Ron Balson’s A PLACE TO HIDE explores the deeply-moral actions of an ordinary man who resolves, under perilous circumstances, to make a difference.