A safe house (also spelled safehouse) is, in a generic sense, a secret place for

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a sa ...

or suitable to hide people from the law, hostile actors or actions, or from retribution, threats or perceived danger. It may also be a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...

Historical usage

It may also refer to: * in the

jargon Jargon is the specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context. The context is usually a partic ...

law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules Rule or ruling may refer to: Education ...

and

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can be des ...

agencies, a secure location, suitable for hiding witnesses, agents or other persons perceived as being in danger * a place where people may go to avoid

prosecution A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...

of their activities by authorities.

Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad Osama bin Laden's compound, known locally as the Waziristan Haveli ( ur, , Wazīristān Havelī, Waziristan Mansion), was a large, upper-class house within a walled compound used as a safe house for militant Islamist Osama bin Laden, who was ...

has been described as a "safe house". * a place where

spying Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining Secrecy, secret or Confidentiality, confidential information (Intelligence assessment, intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the Consent ...

undercover To go "undercover" (that is, to go on an undercover operation) is to avoid detection by the object of one's observation, and especially to disguise one's own identity (or use an assumed identity) for the purposes of gaining the trust of an ind ...

hitmen Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be ...

may conduct clandestine observations or meet other operatives surreptitiously * a location where a trusted adult or family or charity organization provides a haven for victims of

domestic abuse Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for '' intimate partne ...

(see also: men and/or

women's shelter A women's shelter, also known as a women's refuge and battered women's shelter, is a place of temporary protection and support for women escaping domestic violence and intimate partner violence of all forms. The term is also frequently used to ...

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 * a house whose sole purpose is to conduct illegal ventures. Criminals use these to conduct different aspects of their business, such as produce, sell, or store product. *

Right of asylum The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another ent ...

* sanctuary in medieval law * sanctuary in modern times * Church asylum 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

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 Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

, 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 Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

persecution and for escaping prisoners of war. Victims, such as

Anne Frank Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – )Research by The Anne Frank House in 2015 revealed that Frank may have died in February 1945 rather than in March, as Dutch authorities had long assumed"New research sheds new light on Anne Fra ...

and her family, were harbored clandestinely for extended periods of time. Other Jewish victims that were hidden from the Germans include

Philip Slier Philip "Flip" Slier (4 December 1923 – 9 April 1943) was a Dutch typesetter of Jewish origin who lived in Amsterdam during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. At the age of 18, he received a letter from the Jewish Council ...

and his extended family and friends.

References

Sources

* Slier, Philip "Flip" & Slier, Deborah. ''Hidden Letters: The Hidden Letters of Flip Slier''. Star Bright Books, 2008. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Safe House Law enforcement terminology Types of secret places

Historical usage

See also

References

Sources