First, the street map, with the same lines as the drawing. Then the drawing. Above, Europe: a single country of departure, West Germany. Below, Romania with the corner of the Ukrainian SSR and the Moldavian SSR. The row above the drawing is the road of the Bibles: what Margareta’s statement says, and what the file says. A grey point is in the file and is not a Canalul-80 station. The line is the written thread, not the road.
A living archive. A new page can move a point. What is marked as still being checked rests on a working reading, not on the certified copy. If you have a page, upload it at hofmanfund.org/trimite/. It is read before it goes on the map. The certified sentence and the release paper are still awaited, P 2551/2026.
Living children’s names are not here. The Soviet towns found in these pages are three: Chernivtsi, Chișinău, Bălți. I did not find Odesa, Kyiv or Moscow.
Street map · the same lines
The cars, at night, to the checkpointThe O.N.T. coach, 1978–80The road of faith, not the dockThe paper written in BucharestThe Bibles, from Karlsruhe to the barn
A single country of departure is in the file: West Germany, the Karlsruhe depot. I did not find the Netherlands, Switzerland or Austria as a source of the Bibles. Köln and the letters to the embassy in the USA are the protest after the arrest, not the place the sacks left from. The Bern telegram of 3 March 1981 is the Calciu case and does not name Father. The sacks stop in two places: at the Suceava checkpoint, seized (7 sacks, 576 Russian Bibles), and at Jalcău, in the barn in Rădăuți, found under the hay (4 sacks). The dotted gold line toward Chernivtsi, Chișinău and Bălți is the written road. The sacks that were found do not get there. The outline is today’s. In 1980 Karlsruhe is in West Germany, not East Germany. The burgundy line is the written thread, not the road and not a border crossing.
The country · the stations
The cars, at night, to the checkpointThe O.N.T. coach, 1978–80The road of faith, not the dockThe paper written in BucharestThe Bibles, from Karlsruhe to the barn
Enlarged · Suceava, the villages, Chernivtsi
On the Europe sheet
Canalul-80 stations
In the file, not a station
The countries, with their 1980 names
The outline is today’s. The names below are so you know what ground you stand on. Only West Germany is the country the Bibles leave from. The other countries on the sheet are neighbours, or the written road the sacks never reach.
Show the list of countries
FRG, West Germany. In 1980, the western state. Today it is the western part of Germany. The only country of departure: the Karlsruhe depot. Margareta’s statement does not say Karlsruhe. She speaks of the car to Cîlnic and to Bobice.
GDR, East Germany. In 1980, the eastern state. Today it is the eastern part of Germany. It is not the depot. The map draws today’s Germany in one piece.
Romania. This is where the sacks stop: the Suceava checkpoint, and the barn in Rădăuți, Jalcău.
USSR. In 1980, a single state to the north and east. Moscow is not on the sheet, nor Kyiv, nor Odesa.
Ukrainian SSR, today Ukraine. Cernăuți, today Chernivtsi. The coach’s written stop. The sacks that were found do not get there.
Moldavian SSR, today the Republic of Moldova. It is not Ukraine and it is not Romania. Chișinău and Bălți.
Köln is also in West Germany. A protest on 7 February 1981, across from the embassy. It is not a second Bible country.
Switzerland. A neighbour on the map. The Bern telegram of 3 March 1981 is the Calciu case and does not name Father.
France, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Italy, Yugoslavia. Neighbours, to help you find your way. They are not the source. Czechoslovakia is today Czechia and Slovakia. Yugoslavia is today several states.
USA. Not on the map of Europe. Letters of protest to the Romanian embassy. It is not the depot.
How the Bibles were carried
Two voices. Do not paste them into a single trip. A working transcription, not a certified copy.
What the file says
The central depot is in Karlsruhe, in West Germany. The written thread: Karlsruhe, then depots in Iași, Botoșani and Suceava, then two cars. On the night of 18/19 October 1980 a routine checkpoint in Suceava stops two cars with Alba plates. In the trunks, together: 7 sacks, 576 Bibles in Russian, 167 booklets, 40 cassettes. One of the cars is linked to Cîlnic. The second is at Sebeș. Father is not taken that night. The channel is written Karlsruhe → Alba → Suceava / USSR. The October sacks do not reach Chernivtsi, Chișinău or Bălți.
What she says, August–September 1980
Margareta says they drove to Cîlnic and to Miercurea, which the statement calls Bobice. On the map this is Miercurea Sibiului. Clothes and Bibles in paper sacks. A cassette player was given to her. Iași, for her, is the assembly, not the depot on the book map. She saw no foreign currency, gold or gold objects. She does not say Karlsruhe. She does not give the figure 576.
What is not the road of the sacks
The O.N.T. coach, in 1978–79 and spring 1980, runs Suceava–Chernivtsi–Chișinău–Bălți. In the file: 170 rubles, as a currency cover, and cassettes with Iosif Țon. We do not have the page that puts the 576 Bibles on the coach.
Köln, Bern and the letters to the embassy in the USA come after the arrest. They do not carry the sacks.
The Dacia 1300 is on the form, among the assets of the Rădăuți house. It is not named as one of the two cars with Alba plates.
Where they stop, on the papers in hand
At the checkpoint, taken from the trunks. At Jalcău, four sacks under the hay, found on 30 October, and on the same inventory a Philips cassette player with 12 cassettes. We do not know who put the sacks in the barn, or on what day. On 17 November an I.T.T. cassette player and tapes are also seized. That is a seizure from a person, not the road from Karlsruhe.
What we do not know. Research is needed here
How did the sacks leave Karlsruhe: car, train, parcel, someone’s luggage? No page gives the vehicle, nor the border crossing between West Germany and Romania. We do not know whether they passed through Austria, Hungary or Czechoslovakia. The neighbouring countries on the map do not become the road because of that.
Who carried them from the depot in West Germany to the depots named Iași, Botoșani and Suceava. We have the names. We do not have the address, the person, or the date the sacks came in.
Iași, for her, is the assembly and paper sacks. On the book map it is a depot. We do not know if it is the same room.
August–September, when she says they drove, and the night of 18/19 October, when the cars are caught at the checkpoint. We do not have the page that makes them one and the same trip.
Her paper sacks, with clothes and Bibles, and the 7 sacks counted at the checkpoint. She does not give 576. We do not declare them the same.
How the load was divided between the two cars. The checkpoint record must be read car by car, not only for the total.
The road that night: the time of departure from Alba, which highway, which Suceava checkpoint. We have Alba plates and the place of the stop. We do not have a log.
Who was in the cars. Father is not arrested then. That does not say whether he was or was not in a car. The checkpoint report, with the names, is still missing here.
Did the coach carry Bibles too, or only people, rubles as a cover and cassettes? The passenger lists, if they exist, are still to be searched. In this set there is no page from Chernivtsi, Chișinău or Bălți receiving the sacks.
How the 4 sacks got under the hay, from whom, and whether they are different from the 7. The Philips and 12 cassettes, from the same barn, are a third figure, beside 40 and beside 25.
Which Russian edition, which press, which Karlsruhe list. We do not have it. To be searched in D 8810 and in Fond Documentar 141 vol. 1 and 146 vol. 3, because they are not in these volumes.
By 31 October the file counts 21 searches. The Rădăuți houses for which we have the page are on the map of the searches. The rest are still being checked, and we do not know how many other houses held books.
The man from Miercurea: a visit, in August–September, or a hand on the sacks. Without his signed statement the role is not filled in.
Some of the cassettes, she says, were at her brother’s, in Grănicești. That is the road of the cassettes in her words. It is not the depot of the Russian Bibles, and we do not have the separate inventory here.
For the next generation
A working transcription, not a certified copy. The names of the living are not on this sheet. What follows is here so that the difference between a page and a story is not lost.
How to read a page
A statement to the Militia does not mean a recruited informer. “Alecu” is a code name that reports on Father after prison. It is not Father.
The form of 26 October 1980 is filled in by the officer, at the Suceava County Inspectorate. It is not his handwriting. That alone does not prove the page is false.
The search of the barn does not make the younger brother an informer.
The assembly of 25 November 1980 writes that he was honest. That same winter, Service D asks for the line “not for faith, but for the law.” We have the order. We do not have the telegrams that were sent.
What not to mix up
Canalul-80 opens at the checkpoint, on the night of 18/19 October 1980. Surveillance file 1782, EVANGHELISTUL on the cover, opens in the transcription on 3 April 1982 and closes on 2 November 1983. BIBLIA, microfilm 45146, opens on 3 February 1981 and closes on 5 December 1985.
The sentence in the transcription: two penalties merged into 1 year and 6 months. The appeal is rejected, Criminal Decision no. 49, Suceava County Court, 31 January 1981, file 161/1981. Held at Botoșani. Later tables that write 4 years beside each name are a summary. 4 years, in the public study, is the figure for one of the five, not for Hofman.
The sentence does not say “Bibles.” It says foreign currency, 170 rubles in August 1978, and printed matter without authorization, 1971–1980. He and the man from Miercurea, jointly, 2,822 lei.
The street of the house appears both as Gărilor 3 and as Sitarilor 3. Do not make them two houses until you have the page that separates them.
7 sacks at the checkpoint, on the night of 18/19 October. 4 sacks under the hay at Jalcău, at the search of 30 October. We do not have the page that says the 4 are the rest of the 7.
From him, in the transcription: 29 printed graphic items, 25 printed sound items and a cassette player. The receipt of 17 November 1980: I.T.T. 6331-24-05, tapes, clips, used films. It is not the same figure as the 40 cassettes in the trunk.
Questions to ask, with the paper in hand
Where are the certified sentence, the fine and the release paper? Request P 2551/2026 asks for them. Until they come, 1 year and 6 months rests on the working transcription.
Is the court of first instance Rădăuți, as the transcription says, or another? The appeal is at the Suceava court, file 161/1981. Ask for both covers.
What was done with the Bibles after they were taken? Burned, stored, returned? We do not have the page.
Are the 4 sacks from Jalcău and the 7 from the checkpoint the same sacks, or two seizures? Ask for the search records.
The 25 tapes on the receipt and the 40 cassettes in the trunk: one seizure, or two?
Where are D 8810, and Fond Documentar 141 vol. 1 and 146 vol. 3? They are not in these volumes.
Where are the signed statements of the man from Sebeș and the man from Miercurea? They are not in this set. Do not fill them in from memory.
Did the telegrams to Wilhelm Reumann in Köln go out, or is there only the order “to send”?
Iosif Țon is the voice on the cassette, not a town. Where are the tapes?
Bivolărie is a name in the statements. I did not put the village, so as not to hit the wrong commune. Which page gives the village?
Do not attach a person of today to a name from 1980 just because it sounds the same.
The last wish spoken in the family, not a page from 1980: the old synagogue in Rădăuți, not the burned church, for a museum of the persecuted Christians of the area. Where are the papers the church did not hand over?