MARCINELLE August 8, 1956

The dramatic end of the "Arms Against Coal" agreement.

The pact, signed between Italy and Belgium, in 1951, called for sending 50 thousand miners, 2,000 per week, in exchange for 200 kg of coal per day for each Italian worker.

They had to be healthy and young: less than 35 years old.

Postwar misery and a strong desire to help their families drove them to emigrate to Belgium, where no one wanted to go down the mines anymore.

The incidents became more and more frequent until the morning of August 8, 1956 when the Bois du Cazier was the catastrophe, the inferno

Only 12 workers were saved, 232 died, 136 were Italians.

The bilateral agreement also blew up...