In 1938, as Hitler’s inexorable rise continues, Theodore “Teddy” Hartigan is re-assigned from a comfortable job in DC to the US Consulate in Amsterdam to replace fleeing staff.
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, indeed the very existence of the Jewish people.
Teddy comes to realize that he holds the key to saving lives, whether five, fifty, or five hundred — and makes the dangerous and selfless decision to join with underground groups and use his position at the Consulate to rescue those with no other avenue of escape.
Ron Balson’s A Place to Hide explores the deeply-moving actions of an ordinary man who resolves, under perilous circumstances, to make a difference.
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Fiction
A Place to Hide
- From the Publisher
September 1, 2023
Discussion Questions
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