Hans Poley’s archives comprise 24 authentic photographs of persons in hiding. He took these photographs from June to Christmas 1943 with a box camera and paper negatives at the home of the Ten Boom family at Barteljorisstraat 19 in Haarlem. In the course of time, this address became a haven for countless persons who had to go into hiding for various reasons. Poley, a student at Delft himself, had to go into hiding because he had refused to sign the declaration of loyalty the Germans demanded from all Dutch students. Hans Poley photographed and kept a diary in his hiding place.

After Poley had been arrested by the Gestapo while on a mission for the resistance and had finished up in the Amersfoort concentration camp, the ‘Sicherheitsdienst’ (German security police) raided the house at the Barteljorisstraat on 28th February 1944. The Ten Booms and some thirty persons hiding in the house were arrested; six others hiding there escaped arrest.