Bloody Meeting in the North

In the 1950s and 1960s, some 200 000 tramps were listed in the files of the Czechoslovak Ministry of the Interior. The ministry elaborated an extensive program of their intimidation, suppression and provocation to anti-regime behaviour. The tramp movement was systematically dispersed and massacred by units of the ministry and the people's militias. The most infamous bloody intervention took place close to Jetřichovice in the Děčín region in 1963. However, the event cannot be excluded from its historical context; it was not a unique event but rather a demonstration of power of the totalitarian regime. The documentary is a pilot film of a Czech Television series. The realization of the documentary was financially supported by Václav Havel.