Editorial Content for A Place to Hide

Powerful and dramatic, National Jewish Book Award winner Ronald H. Balson’s A PLACE TO HIDE explores the deeply moving actions of an ordinary man who resolves, under perilous circumstances, to make a difference.

Powerful and dramatic, National Jewish Book Award winner Ronald H. Balson’s A PLACE TO HIDE explores the deeply moving actions of an ordinary man who resolves, under perilous circumstances, to make a difference.

From the winner of the National Jewish Book Award.

Theodore “Teddy” Hartigan is the scion of a wealthy Washington, D.C. family who place him into a comfortable job at the State Department and a placid diplomat’s career. In 1938, as Hitler’s inexorable rise continues, Teddy is reassigned 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.

When Teddy and his girlfriend, Sara, are introduced to an orphaned young girl named Katy, who has been abandoned on the grounds of a nursery school, they agree to adopt her. Teddy comes to realize that he holds the key to saving lives, whether five, 50 or 500 --- 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.

Powerful and dramatic, National Jewish Book Award winner Ronald H. Balson’s A PLACE TO HIDE explores the deeply moving actions of an ordinary man who resolves, under perilous circumstances, to make a difference.