A safe house, in the jargon of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, is a secure location, suitable for hiding witnesses, agents or other persons perceived as being in danger.
It may also refer to:
- a place where people may go to avoid prosecution of their activities by authorities
- a place where undercover operatives may conduct clandestine observations or meet other operatives surreptitiously
- a location where a trusted adult or family or charity organization provides a safe haven for victims of domestic abuse (see also: men and/or women's shelter or refuge)
- a home of a trusted person, family or organization where victims of war and/or persecution may take refuge, receive protection and/or live in secret
- Right of asylum
- sanctuary in medieval law
- sanctuary in modern times
Typically, the significance of safe houses is kept secret from all but a limited number of people, for the safety of those hidden within them.
Many religious institutions will allow one to obtain sanctuary within one's place of worship, and some governments respect and do not violate such sanctuary.
Safe houses were an integral part of the Underground Railroad, the network of safe house locations that were used to assist slaves in escaping to the primarily northern free states in the 19th century United States. Some houses were marked with a statue of an African-American man holding a lantern, called "the Lantern Holder".
Safe houses also provided a refuge for victims of Nazi persecution and for escaping prisoners of war. Victims, such as Anne Frank and her family, were harbored clandestinely for extended periods of time. Other Jewish victims hidden from the Germans were Philip Slier and his extended family and friends.
Famous quotes containing the words safe and/or house:
“It is not quite safe to send out a venture in this kind, unless yourself go supercargo. Where a man goes, there he is; but the slightest virtue is immovable,—it is real estate, not personal; who would keep it, must consent to be bought and sold with it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Our law very often reminds one of those outskirts of cities where you cannot for a long time tell how the streets come to wind about in so capricious and serpent-like a manner. At last it strikes you that they grew up, house by house, on the devious tracks of the old green lanes; and if you follow on to the existing fields, you may often find the change half complete.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)