Marco De Paolis, Military Attorney General at the Military Court of Appeal in Rome, arrives in Foggia. Between 2002 and 2018 he directed the investigations into over 500 proceedings for military and civilian massacres committed after 8 September 1943, leading to judging 17 trials and obtaining 57 life sentences for those responsible for the most serious massacres committed in Italy and abroad during the Second World War. On Thursday 2 May at 10.30 he will be in the Aula Magna of the Department of Law of the University of Foggia to present his book ‘Nazi Hunt’ (Rizzoli).
‘Nazi Hunt’. The book recounts fifteen years of investigations, interrogations, testimonies and trials which led to over 500 proceedings against Nazi and fascist criminals for civilian and military massacres. A long journey, forty years after the archiving of what was then defined as ‘the cupboard of shame’ between Italy, Germany and Austria, to be able to interrogate and bring to trial numerous former members of the SS.
“Finally the ‘short century’ ended – writes Senator Liliana Segre in the introduction to the book – and, albeit too late, the wardrobe was ‘discovered’ and opened. From then on it was possible to reorient not only historical journalism, but also judicial activity to the needs of truth and justice, which should instead be normal and essential. In the new climate, the military general prosecutor’s office was able to open the files of an infinite number of massacres committed on our territory by the Nazi invader and the fascist collaborators and thus undertake a process of recognition of the right to justice for a large number of civilian victims”.
