Mordechai Frizis

Colonel Mordechai Frizis, Hero of the Greek-Italian War Greek: Συνταγματάρχης Μαρδοχαίος Φριζής, Ηρωας του Ελληνοϊταλικού Πολέμου Hellenic Army officer, who fought in World War I, distinguished himself in World War II, fighting against the Italian 3rd Alpine Division "Julia" in the Battle of Pindus, and was killed on 5 December 1940, fighting the 37th Infantry Division "Modena" of the Italian Army, during the Greek counter-offensive in Albania. He was born on the island of Euboea, to a Romaniote-Jewish family, one of 12 children born to Jacob and Iopi Frizis. After studying law at Athens University, he enlisted in the Hellenic Army in 1916, and went to officer training school. He fought in World War I on the Macedonian front, and participated in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, becoming a Second Lieutenant in 1919. In 1922, as a newly promoted First Lieutenant, he took part in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). He was taken prisoner, and as the only non-Christian Greek officer taken prisoner by the Turks during the campaign, was offered his freedom, but refused and elected to remain with his comrades, enduring eleven months of captivity. He was released after the prisoner exchange agreement between Greece and Turkey. Upon his return to Greece, Frizis was promoted to Captain and sent to Paris, where he attended the Ecole Militaire. After graduating from this military academy, he returned to Greece, and upon his completion of studies in the Hellenic School of War, he was promoted to the rank of Major. In the spring of 1940, as a Lieutenant Colonel, he was stationed at the headquarters of the 8th Division in Ioannina. When the Italians invaded in the early hours of 28 October 1940, he served as a detachment commander of the Delvinaki section of Greece's 8th Division. He succeeded in repelling an Italian attack on the bridge of the Thyamis River, followed up by a Greek counter-attack. When the Italians countered with aerial bombing, his men dismounted and took cover in trenches, while he continued riding his horse throughout the battlefield and shouting "courage" to rally his men. He was severely wounded in the stomach, but continued encouraging his men. When the Italian aircraft withdrew, it was discovered that he had died of his injuries. In the absence of a rabbi, his body was blessed by a Greek Orthodox priest «Άκου Ισραήλ, ο Κύριος ο Θεός σου, ο Κύριος είναι ένας» (Hear Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one) and buried at Premeti (Përmet in Albanian). On 15 April 1941 he was promoted posthumously to colonel, backdated to the date of his death. In 2002, his remains were located in Albania and were transferred to the "New"Jewish Cemetery of Thessaloniki (which replaced the old cemetery desecrated and destroyed by the Nazis and their "Greekling" collaborators during the 1941-44 Occupation). More than half the city's Jewish community - numbering about 1,100 people - attended the funeral service conducted by his grandson Mordechai Frizis, Rabbi of Thessaloniki.