«The black ghosts of Marcinelle» was released in recent days, published by Bellunesi nel mondo Edizioni. History (and stories) of Belluno emigration to Belgium”. The author, Egidio Pasuch (teacher and journalist), traces a century of emigration towards what has been defined from time to time as the “Black Country” and the “Land of Cain”. The most well-known and dramatic page of this emigration, which involved several thousand people from Belluno (many of whom were employed in the Belgian mines), was represented by the tragedy of Marcinelle where a sixteen-year-old, Dino Della Vecchia, also lost his life.
The emigration from Belluno to Belgium, however, did not begin after the Second World War, but at least twenty years earlier, in the aftermath of the First World War. And to the economic emigration, which was quite significant, there was soon also emigration for political reasons. The tensions between fascists and anti-fascists, whose protagonists were emigrants from Belluno, were also very strong on Belgian soil and sometimes resulted in dramatic bloody events.
In the aftermath of the Second World War, emigration to Belgium resumed, spontaneously and significantly, even before the infamous agreements of June 1946. The people of Belluno, miners for a tradition that has often eluded local historians in terms of consistency and weight, were among the first to leave for the Belgian mines, requested and sought after by the mining industry of that country which was the first to reopen the doors to Italian emigration, preferably from Veneto and Belluno. In an immediately subsequent phase, the Belgian steel and construction industries also opened their doors to Italians and people from Belluno.
«That emigration, invoked by many in the aftermath of the conflict – writes the author – was considered as a harsh, inevitable necessity, the only outlet for unemployment in an extremely poor economic fabric. It was mainly the younger ones who left, but soon their girlfriends, wives and families joined them. We left in groups, by country. From the Agordino and Lower Feltrino areas, but also from the Right Piave, most ended up in the mines. Groups departed from the Sinistra Piave and Alpago, mainly destined for the steel industry. An important contribution to this emigration was made by the construction sites of dams, barrages and power plants (which attracted workers especially in Valbelluna)”.
The living conditions of those Belluno emigrants were already difficult between the two wars. The same problems, linked above all to housing, obviously recurred also in the aftermath of the conflict (but, as will be seen in the study, the living conditions in the Belluno area were in any case not much better…).
Sometimes the lack of clarity in employment contracts was also actually denounced. But in general, for a few years Belgium attracted thousands of people from Belluno enticed by the good wages.
According to what Pasuch reconstructs, the Belluno press – “L’Amico del Popolo” above all – initially supported this migration, viewing it favorably also because it had a Catholic reality as its destination. But soon, faced with the first deaths and the opening of new migratory opportunities, this enthusiasm cooled. Just as the race of the Belluno people towards Belgium cooled off quite quickly. The great tragedies (Marcinelle itself) arrived when that enthusiasm was rapidly declining and gave the Belgian economy – which relied so much on coal – and the Belluno emigration towards that country and those mines almost a final blow. But by now the colony of Belluno people in Belgium (normally joined by their families) was numerous and their integration was already well underway.
The birth of the Belluno Emigrants Association in 1966 represented an important moment for these Belluno emigrants in Belgium. The Association’s interest in these emigrants and their problems was, in the very first years, very high. We began to think about return policies.
The last pages of the book are dedicated to the question of recognition of the rights of the silicotics who returned in large numbers from Belgium. «On this front, which was too quickly forgotten – concludes Pasuch – the Belluno society, especially starting from the early 1960s, was able to mobilize together, obtaining very important results».
It is possible to purchase the book directly at the headquarters of the Bellunesi nel Mondo Association, in via Cavour 3 in Belluno (telephone 0437 941160 – [email protected]).
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