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:
“Although a firm swat could bring a recalcitrant child swiftly into line, the changes were usually external, lasting only as long as the swatter remained in view....Permanent transformation had to be internal....The habits of self discipline, as laborious and frustrating as they were to achieve, offered the only real possibility of keeping children safe from their own excesses as well as the omnipresent dangers of society.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“Perchance the time will come when every house even will have not only its sleeping-rooms, and dining-room, and talking-room or parlor, but its thinking-room also, and the architects will put it into their plans. Let it be furnished and ornamented with whatever conduces to serious and creative thought. I should not object to the holy water, or any other simple symbol, if it were consecrated by the imagination of the worshipers.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)