Dear Commons Community,
I have just finished reading A Place to Hide, a novel written by Ronald H. Balson, who wrote the international bestseller, Once We Were Brothers. It explores the moral actions of Teddy Hartigan, who reluctantly takes a position in the U.S. consulate in Amsterdam in the late 1930s as Naziism and Jewish persecution rise up in Europe. Hartigan marries a Jewish woman and adopts a Jewish child, whose lives are at stake as the German ‘Final Solution” spreads throughout Europe and into The Netherlands. Hartigan evolves during the story as a government bureaucrat processing visas to an individual who takes deeply moral actions to save imperiled Jews especially children. At two hundred and ninety pages, it is a fast read, just perfect for a cold January weekend.
I highly recommend A Place to Hide!
Below is an excerpt of a review that appeared in the Congregation Beth Shalom website.
Tony
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A Place to Hide is the remarkable new novel by Ronald H. Balson. The plot is based on a true story and
begins in Tel Aviv in 2002. A chance meeting between Karyn and Burt leads Karyn to reveal that she
was a hidden Dutch child during WWII. She still yearns for information about the sister she was
separated from. Burt’s elderly cousin Teddy worked in Amsterdam during the war and has contacts
there. Karyn, a former journalist, travels to Washington to seek Teddy’s help in return for documenting
his war time story. Balson’s plot switches seamlessly between Teddy’s past and present. Teddy is not in
great health.
Theodore “Teddy” Hartigan is the scion of a wealthy and well-connected D.C. family. Teddy leaves his
cushy position in the State Department in 1938 when he is re-assigned to the U.S. Consulate in
Amsterdam to replace fleeing staff. His job is to process Visa applications when there are no Visa’s
available. Teddy wants to help all the desperate people, but his hands are tied.
Teddy falls in love with Sara, a Jewish girl from the nearby town of Utrecht. Sara’s father is head of the
history department at the university there. He understands the Nazi threat and solicits Teddy’s help to
insure his daughter’s future. Teddy and Sara marry and adopt a little girl who has been abandoned, for
her own safety, at a pre-school in Amsterdam. When the consulate is permanently closed Teddy is
asked to stay on and to work undercover with Sara’s father. Teddy becomes part of the resistance
movement. Jewish families are sequestered in Amsterdam and awaiting transport to concentration
camps. Parents are desperate to save their children, and Teddy conceives a plan to help as many of them
as possible. Could these children be adopted by gentile families? Balson’s writing puts this extraordinary
story where it belongs – available for everyone to read and remember.
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