The Gonfalone of the city of Naples, decorated for the Four Days of Naples, will pay his last respects to Gennaro Di Paola, who passed away today at the age of 98 in Massa di Somma, where he lived in his final years. Di Paola, the City of Naples emphasized, "fought at a very young age on the streets of our city for liberation from Nazi-Fascism." Mayor Luigi de Magistris remembered him thus: "Gennaro Di Paola, a partisan and protagonist of the Four Days of Naples in September 1943, has died. Gennaro, along with countless Neapolitans, women and men often not yet adults, helped liberate Naples from Nazi-Fascist occupation. Every year we met in the square for the official commemorations and sang Bella Ciao. A proud and very sweet old man, a true partisan. Ciao Gennaro, you were so dear to me." Di Paola passed away yesterday in Massa di Somma, where he lived with his daughter and where a private funeral will be held tomorrow morning. A delegation from the ANPI, the association of which the veteran partisan was honorary president in Naples, will also accompany the coffin. Despite his advanced age, Gennaro Di Paola continued to commemorate those days in Naples, of which he was a key figure, in his early twenties. It was 1943. And he continued to go to schools to recount 'his' Resistance and to explain that "until everyone is free, there is no life." Last April 25, his words struck a chord with the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Roberto Fico: "Dear President Fico, we are not asking for anything; it's our style. But we invite you," Di Paola urged, "to always defend the value of the Resistance, to talk about it more in schools, to spread its spirit, and we thank you for what you can do: these values cannot be threatened."
“Gennaro Di Paola fought to build our Republic. A partisan, he was one of the protagonists of the Four Days of Naples, helping to liberate the city from Nazi-Fascist occupation. He passed away yesterday. I remember his words very well on April 25, words that I will always carry with me: “Dear President Fico, we ask for nothing, it is our style. But we invite you to always defend the value of the Resistance, and to talk about it more in schools, to spread its spirit, and we thank you for what you can do: these values cannot be threatened”. And I will do it, I will commit to defending the value of the memory of the Resistance and the principles that support our democracy, achievements that we owe to people like Gennaro Di Paola who are the thoughts of our entire community”. This is what the President of the Chamber, Roberto Fico, wrote on Facebook.
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