• Romania
    2006 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    • At that very time, a printery at 36 Regina Maria Street, Cluj-Napoca, which the brothers were already using, was placed on the market. After obtaining approval from world headquarters, the branch purchased this ideal property, which included two buildings​—one was four stories high, and the other two.

      Renovations commenced in March 1924, volunteers coming from as far as Baia-Mare, Bistriţa, and Rodna. So that they could contribute toward the project, a number of brothers sold personal belongings, while others donated food and construction materials. They transported many of these items in special bags called desagi, which could be slung over the shoulder or carried on the back of a horse.

      In order to upgrade the printery, the branch purchased, among other things, three Linotype machines, two flatbed presses, one rotary press, an automatic folding machine, and a machine for gold-embossing. Thus equipped, the printery soon set a new standard for print quality in the country.

      Of the 8 members of the Bethel family, one supervised the 40 non-Witness employees who worked three shifts in the printery. And they worked hard, as reflected in the production report for 1924, the first year of operation. Printing in both Romanian and Hungarian, the brothers produced 226,075 books, 100,000 booklets, and 175,000 magazines! The books included the Bible study aid The Harp of God and the first of seven volumes of Studies in the Scriptures, entitled The Divine Plan of the Ages.

      After two years of preparatory work, the branch also printed a Romanian-language edition of the book Scenario of the Photo-Drama of Creation. As its name suggests, the Scenario was based on the “Photo-Drama”​—a discourse that employed colored glass slides, motion pictures, and synchronized sound. Audiences were taken from earth’s creation to the end of Christ’s Thousand Year Reign. Though not as dramatic as the “Photo-Drama,” the Scenario contained 400 printed images as well as short lessons on doctrinal, historical, and scientific matters​—all of which moved many readers to look into the Bible further.