A working map of October 1980: where the books came from, which houses were searched, who stood in the dock. It is not a sentence. It is not a certified copy.
Living children’s names are not on this page. The Rădăuți house had seven minor children — the youngest ten months old — on the night of the search.
The thread
Karlsruhe, West Germany→depots Iași · Botoșani · Suceava→checkpoint 18/19 Oct. Suceava→21 searches by 31 Oct.→toward the USSR
Two cars with Alba plates, stopped at night at a routine checkpoint. In the trunks: 7 sacks — 576 Russian Bibles, 167 booklets, 40 cassettes. That is how Canalul-80 opened. Father was not taken that night. He was taken on 31 October.
The book road
The three houses, 30 October 1980
Search · the wife
3 Gărilor Street
Hofman Gheorghe and Hofman Margareta. The complete files stay with the family, for now.
the same assembly · house, outbuildings, Dacia 1300
seven minor children in the house
Margareta’s statement, log pp. 292–294, in her own hand
Father taken the next day, 31 October
Search · the grandparents
Jalcău, the parents’ house
Hofman Victoria (b. 1914) and Hofman Serghie (b. 1912). The complete file stays with the family, for now.
consent + search record, the same day. We have no signed statement from Serghie
the younger brother’s barn: four sacks of Bibles under the hay
Philips + 12 cassettes on the inventory
questioning ≠ recruited informer
Mother’s family · not a third search of 30 Oct.
Grănicești
the parents’ birthplace
Margareta’s brother, Moloș / Moloci Gheorghe
some of the recorded cassettes, she says, were kept at his place
Moloci is on the list of the 8 who were fined (CNSAS study)
Timeline
1978–79 / spring 1980O.N.T. tours Suceava–Chernivtsi–Chișinău–Bălți. 170 rubles (the currency cover). Iosif Țon cassettes.
Aug.–Sept. 1980Margareta says: they drove to Cîlnic and to Bobice.
18/19 Oct. 1980The checkpoint. Two Alba cars. Canalul-80 opens. Not the date of the arrest.
25 Oct.Joint plan of Directorates I and VI + Militia + Prosecutor’s Office. Searches including at Hoffman, Rădăuți.
26 Oct.Gheorghe’s charge form. The officer’s handwriting, not his.
30 Oct.The two Rădăuți houses. Margareta’s statement. The barn. Victoria and Serghie.
31 Oct.Pre-trial arrest. By then: 21 searches. The destination: Botoșani.
17 Nov.Receipt: I.T.T. cassette player + 25 tapes seized.
25 Nov.The assembly’s reference: he was honest, without fault. The trial begins.
10 Jan. 1981Sentence no. 13. The family: 1 year 6 months. Appeal rejected 31 Jan., file 161/1981.
7 Feb. 1981ECCLESIA, Köln, ~500 people across from the embassy.
3 Feb. 1981 – 5 Dec. 1985Group action BIBLIA. In 1987 still “the main author in the Canal 80 case.”
The five in the dock
Hofman Gheorghe
Rădăuți · EVANGHELISTUL 1 year 6 months · Botoșani the file stays with the family
Cîlnic, Alba
one of the cars the statement is not on the public door
Sebeș
the second car no signed statement here
Miercurea
Bobice in the wife’s statement no signed statement here
Sibiu
one of the five the statement is not on the public door
The road of faith in Margareta’s statement (not all of them stood in the dock): Lăcătușu Vasile (Cacica), the brother of the man from Miercurea, the assembly in Iași, clothes and Bibles in paper sacks, a cassette player given to her. The man from Cîlnic told her husband to give it up — “which was laughed at.” She saw no foreign currency, no gold, no gold objects.
Two institutions, two kinds of paper
The Militia
The Ministry of the Interior. It runs the checkpoint, the search, the search record, the statement in the log, the criminal investigation. Page 292 is Militia. Her signature is on every page.
The Securitate (DSS)
The political file: DUI 1782 EVANGHELISTUL, the BIBLIA action, U.M. 0544 notes, Service D, the Köln telegrams. The state did not write “Bible trafficking.” It wrote foreign currency and printed matter without authorization.
A few numbers from the public CNSAS study
576Russian Bibles in the 7 sacks
21searches by 31 Oct.
5arrested · the Christians after the Gospel
8fined, among them Moloci and the younger brother
Still missing from the picture
The top-secret file D 8810 (Canal 80) — not yet requested in these volumes.
Fond Documentar 141 vol. 1 and 146 vol. 3 — that is where the public study cites the sentence.
The certified copy of Sentence no. 13 / 10.01.1981 (the family: 1 year 6 months; the public study gives 4 years to one of the five, not to Hofman).
The release paper, the Botoșani prison record card.
Signed statement of Hofman Serghie — not in the bundle. The man from Sebeș and the man from Miercurea: no signed statement here.
The I.T.T. cassette player is on the receipt; the road of the cassettes to Grănicești is in her statement, not on a separate inventory here.