"The last miners": a podcast on the Marcinelle tragedy with the voices of the protagonists

A podcast on the Marcinelle tragedy and on Italian emigration to Belgiumwhich presents itself as a starting point for a reflection tout court on immigration (and emigration) and the phenomenon experienced today. Is called “The Last Miners” the project of Paolo Riva (journalist and author) e Diego Ravier (photographer and author) who, starting from what was one of the most serious accidents in the mining history of Europe, talks about symbols, memory, rediscovery and migration in many of its facets. The first episode was released on June 23the date on which the signature occurs Italian-Belgian protocol which ensured and shaped, among other things, the transfer and working conditions of Italian citizens in Belgium.

But the story starts from the morning of the tragedy, on August 8, 1956when in the accident at the mine of Cazier Woodwhich effectively decreed the end of the agreement between Italy and Belgium, lost their lives 262 miners of 12 nationalitiesof which 136 Italians. “The podcast was born with the idea of doing a photographic work, accompanied by a journalistic work, which led us first to one miner, then to another and, little by little, made us discover that we were faced with something greater than a memory of the Marcinelle accidents. We were faced with the passage of a generation, which had left Italy to come here to Belgium, which had lived through the war and post-war periods and which, abandoning everything, had come to work in the mine without knowing in what conditions it would work, without know nothing about Belgium”, he told Agi Diego Ravier.

Stories of Italian miners that the two authors have researched and rediscovered over the years, interviewing some of the survivors and rescuers, who told them the most significant moments of their lives in Belgium, including the dark ones of the accident and the first, urgent aid. “It’s incredible, because many of these miners may not remember what they ate yesterday, but they are able to remember the details of their work: like the medal number they had on their overalls or work clothes every time they returned from the depths of the earth, as well as the noise of the elevator on the first descent or the sound of the train that accompanied them to Belgium from Milan. It is through them that we have tried to keep the collective memory alive of a historical period,” added Ravier.

A story in four episodes – the next three will be released in the next few weeks – produced by Intreccimedia and by the association Nembresi in the worldcreated with the contribution of Cariplo Foundationin collaboration with the Ruah social enterprise cooperative, the municipality of Nembro, the Ente Bergamoschi nel mondo, the Migrantes Foundation – Ceithe Fileo project of the Diocese of Bergamo, theAssociation of coal miners in Walloniathe Brussels circle of “Bergamo people in the world”, the spouses Mariuccia and Lino Rota, and the Nembro mining and emigration museum.

Many partners for a project that starts from Marcinelle to lead the listener to think and rethink the phenomenon of emigration today, with many Italians who, for different reasons and in different conditions, still move abroad, to Belgium as well as to other states. “We started working on this topic as soon as we moved to Belgium, more or less ten years ago, for 60 years since the tragedy. And from there we continued to work on it and meet the protagonists who were still alive”, he explained to Agi Paolo Riva.

“They were stories of miners who had come here. Then we also dealt with the ‘return journey’speaking with those miners who at a certain point, having finished their professional period in Belgium, decided to return to Italy. We were in the Marche and, in particular, in Abruzzo – from which 60 of the 136 Italians who died in the tragedy came – where the memory is still particularly strong”, added Riva.

Interviews and reconstructions which led the two to speak with the children of Italian miners in Belgium, in some cases also with the children of Marcinelle’s victims. A journey down memory lane to reconstruct the story from the choice of transfer, through the journey to Belgium – almost always alone – and then perhaps finding one’s family or loved ones months or years later, once the transfer became possible. Many of the workers, the authors explain, once the mines closed remained to act as guides or to engage in some way in those places which in the meantime had become UNESCO heritage and fundamental sites for Italian, Belgian and international memory.

Like the story of Urbano Ciacciexcept because on the day of the tragedy he was in Italy for his wedding. He who, when buying the newspaper, discovered about the tragedy and about his workmates who hadn’t made it. Ciacci who, in the following years, committed himself to supporting the transformation of the Bois du Cazier into a museum, against the demolition project planned in the 1980s.

Or like the story of Mario Bandera who, the authors say, remembers his arrival, at 14 years old, in the barracks reserved for miners. Having arrived with his family from Erbusco, in the province of Brescia, he was recovered by the mine staff and reunited with his father, already in Belgium, who did not expect to see his son working with him.

The parallels with today’s emigration and immigration also arise from research and interviews. “You see yourself a little, even with all the differences and without cloying comparisons, in some sensations that can however be compared”, the two still tell Agi. “The striking thing about those years, however, is that the Italian emigration system was codified, state-run. A state that consciously let people go to places that were known to be unsafe, unhealthy and dangerous. Today the situation is very different”, explain the authors.

An anecdote? “The story that perhaps struck us the most is that of an emigrant from the Bergamo valleys who, that morning, from a miner he became a rescuer. At the end of his work shift, while he was taking a shower, he was called to Marcinelle to provide emergency assistance. It is a personal story that is part of a much larger one and that transforms a day that began as normal into a date that we still remember today and which marked the history of Italy, Belgium and the immigration of those who arrived after us to work in the Belgian mines”, concludes Riva.