There are few events that can become symbols of the history of an entire country. For Italy, the Marcinelle massacre of 8 August 1956 is recognised as the catastrophe of Italians abroad, a deep wound in the history of a people committed to migrating around the world. It is just after 8 a.m. in the morning in the Bois du Cazier mine, in Marcinelle, Belgium, the miners are already working at a rapid pace to dig coal down to minus 975 meters, one kilometer underground. A fire broke out in one of the main shafts, caused by human error, and within minutes the entire underground installation was engulfed in flames. The toll was dramatic: of 275 people present, 262 died. Of these, 136 were Italians, all immigrants. Since 2001, the anniversary of the Marcinelle disaster has coincided with the 'Day of the Sacrifice of Italian Workers Worldwide', established by the then President of the Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, to remember not only the tragedy in Belgium, but all Italians who fell while working abroad. The Bois du Cazier catastrophe also put an end to the 'Men against Coal' treaty, signed in 1946 between Italy and Belgium, under which Belgium was to cede coal to Italy in exchange for Italian labor to be employed in its mines. Between 1946 and 1956, more than 140,000 Italians went to work in the coal mines of Wallonia: the presence of Italian workers in the Marcinelle mine, now a Unesco World Heritage Site, was the result of this treaty. Today, the victims of Marcinelle are remembered as the great tragedy of work and emigration.