Decision to close the investigation file on “Ortodoxul” (28 December 1966)
Ministry of the Interior Directorate III
Top Secret
Approved, Head of Directorate (ss./indecipherable)
Decision to close file 9802 on the “Orthodox” suspected of counter-revolutionary agitation
The file was opened on 9.III.1966.
The investigation lasted until …1.XII.1966, i.e. 9 months.
What means were used (names and categories of informer):
Agents “Marin Oltescu”, “.Jean Draga”, “George”, telephone tapping, control of correspondence, surveillance. Identification data:
I. Surname Steinhardt, First name Nicu-Aureliu, Born on 29.7.1912 in Bucharest, Son of Oscar and Antoaneta, Nationality Jewish, Place of residence Ion Ghica, 3, Studies Law. Place of employment F-ca “Stăruința”, Function administrator, Political affiliation (at present) Independent
Political activity (in the past) Sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment by the Military Tribunal of the II Military Regiment for the crime of conspiracy against the social order on 24 June 1960.
Bourgeois social origin
Social status
Other information: Former journalist.
II. Content of compromising material
1. Grounds for opening the file:
(bourgeois archival, investigative, informational, denunciatory, etc. materials and brief description of their content):
According to the information received, after his release from prison, in meetings with other ex-convicts QC, he adopted a recalcitrant position.
Agent “Radu” reported him as an admirer of the Legionaries and expressed his wish to leave the country.
After converting to Christianity, he became an orthodox fanatic, suspected of spreading mystical ideas.
2. What the investigation is intended to establish (purpose with details):
Whether he is engaged in hostile activities and what they are.
To know his links with his circle of friends, who is actively involved in discussions and whether the target is trying to indoctrinate them with his mystical ideas.
Whether he still has links with foreigners and for what purpose.
3. What has been established and what the evidence is (will show you and page from the file):
On the instructions of the agents “Marin Oltescu”, “Jean Draga” and a DGI agent, the following was established:
Steinhardt Nicu, after his release from prison, was employed as an accountant in the company “Stăruința” and later became a worker.
His main concern is still to find a job that corresponds to his education and to take care of his father, who is over 80 years old and very ill. He speaks several languages, has a PhD in law and is a close collaborator of writers (such as Mihail Sebastian, N.D. Cocea, G. Calinescu, Al. Rosetti) who have appreciated his writings.
This is also underlined by the DGI agent, who describes him as “an intellectual of great value, a man of culture, profoundly correct” and “with a great love for the country”.
According to the “Marin Oltescu” agent, as a Jew, Steinhardt Nicu suffered from an inferiority complex, and his period of detention accentuated the mystical-philosophical thinking to which he had previously adhered, considering his conversion to Orthodoxy as a form of consecration as a Romanian.
Because of this belief, he helped the sick and showed himself to be extremely generous, which explains why he is still sought after by many former prisoners c.r. This is evident both from the control of his correspondence (most of the letters are from former prisoners thanking him for his help) and from the surveillance and ITL measures.
Links with people abroad were limited to correspondence with relatives or friends living in other countries, without any particular problems arising.
Although he is an Orthodox fanatic, he does not seek to indoctrinate those with whom he comes into contact with his ideas, although he does support them when they contradict him (in the case of the DGI agent) and regards his religious fanaticism as an intimate matter of conscience.
The same agents point out that he does not express any hostility towards the regime, stating that “it has nothing to do with politics”.
All this refutes some of the claims made by agent “Radu” that Steinhardt would show himself to be an admirer of the Legionaries, all the more so as agent “Ionescu Petre” from the same company shows him to be right.
III. Detailed reasons for closing the file:
Steinhardt Nicu does not carry out any hostile activity against the social order in our country, nor does he carry out any propaganda along mystical-religious lines, his dissatisfactions are due to situations related to work, health, etc. and therefore he does not represent any social danger.
IV. Suggestions:
a) Material that has not been confirmed: destroy the file with the removal of the persons from the file;
b) Material of minor importance: keep the file in the archives or attach it to the objective or problem file. (This will be indicated for each case in case the material is resolved differently):
Close the verification file on Steinhardt Nicu and file the material with the service. “C” MAI, and the aforementioned person continued to be followed up within the active operational file of problem file 891 various subversive organisations 302/1.
The decision was made in 1 specimen
Today 14.12.1966 in Bucharest
Head of office
(rank, signature)
(ss./indecipherable)
Operative worker
(grade, name illegible, signature),
(ss./indecipherable)
Head of Department,
(grade, name illegible, signature)
(ss./indecipherable)
(ACNSAS, information file, file no. 207, volume 4, pp. 250-253; document reproduced in Nicu Steinhardt in the Securitate files (1959-1989), edited by Clara Cosmineanu, Nemira Publishing House, Bucharest, 2005, pp. 122-125)