He conducted over 500 investigations, held 17 trials against those responsible for 2,600 killings, and issued 57 life sentences for war crimes committed after 8 September 1943 in the Nazi-Fascist massacres of Sant'Anna di Stazzema, Marzabotto, San Terenzio and Vinca, Certosa di Farneta, Falzano di Cortona, Civitella and San Pancrazio.
As military prosecutor of La Spezia, the military attorney general at the Military Court of Appeal of Rome, Marco De Paolis , in 1994 he reopens the files forgotten since 1960 in the Cupboard of Shame where thousands of documents were stored and hidden reporting the names and surnames of the executioners of the massacres that took place during the Second World War, who remained unpunished until the investigations carried out by the prosecutor and recounted in the book Caccia ai nazisti (ed. Rizzoli), the focus of a meeting this morning with high school students in Olbia.
De Paolis answered the students' questions, moderated by the professor from the University of Sassari, Lucia Giovanelli , to tell about his work, which lasted fifteen years, between the search for the truth and the desire to honor the approximately seven thousand victims.
"His testimony has an inestimable value because it represents the courage of those who were able to shed light on the war crimes and massacres committed in Italy during the Second World War: the memory of those events is a moral duty for adults and to be passed on to young people", said the mayor, Settimo Nizzi, participating in the event.
