كارثة ماتمارك – قصة متشابكة

On August 30, 1965, an avalanche collapsed on the workers' barracks directly below the Alalin Glacier for the construction of the Matmark Dam, burying 88 people; 56 of them were from Italy. Editor Elizabeth Joris profiles the women who participated in building the dam, both as workers and as members of their families. It also highlights the differences in how this event is commemorated. While the Mattmark Dam in Italy remains a symbol of an avoidable disaster, in Switzerland today it is known primarily as a popular hiking trail. According to Andreas Weissen, this corridor connecting the Saas Valley to the Italian town of Macognaga was previously used as a smugglers' route. Interpretations of the court rulings, which absolved officials of any guilt seven years after the disaster, vary widely. Kurt Martí complements the results of his study of the trial with an analysis of files made publicly available since 2022, which confirmed his hypothesis about the bias of the judges. Vasco Pedrina describes the importance of the Matmark case in the transformation of corporatist immigration policy during the Schwarzenbach Initiative, when rejection of immigrants as competitors was replaced by a solidarity-based representation of their interests.