Author Ronald H. Balson

Date: Wednesday, November 6

Time: 6:30 pm

Ron Balson discusses his book A Place to Hide. 

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.