Mardocheos Frizis
Mardocheos Frizis ( Greek Μαρδοχαίος Φριζής ; * January 1, 1893 , † December 7, 1940 ) was a colonel in the Greek armed forces . He fell as the first Greek senior officer in World War II .
Life
Mardocheos Frizis was born in Chalkida (then: Chalkis), where he grew up as a child of a large Romaniotic family. (The Romaniots were Jews who had lived in Greece since ancient times). He began studying at the military academy in Athens, which he broke off a little later. He took the entrance exam for a place in the Law Faculty of the University of Athens and studied law. He contacted Georgios Kondylis and expressed his wish to continue to pursue a military career. This placed him at an officers' school, which he completed in 1916.
Frizis took part in World War I , a conflict in Ukraine and the Greco-Turkish War . In this he got into captivity. The Turkish armed forces offered to release him because he was Jewish. He referred to being Greek and refused any treatment other than that of his Christian comrades. After the end of the war he studied at the École Militaire Supérieure in Paris and then returned to Greece.
During the Greco-Italian War he took part in the Battle of the Pindus and with his units, without air support and tanks, defeated superior Italian forces of the Ferrara Division on a bridge over the Kalamas . In a subsequent battle he rode on horseback and already shot ahead of the troops. He accepted that he would be easy prey for Italian planes in the snow. He was killed on December 7, 1940. He left a wife and three children.
It was not until 2002 that the body of Frizis was recovered in Albania and buried in Greece.
Honors
Monuments and streets in Greece are reminiscent of Frizis.
literature
- Nickolaos Mavromates: The Greek Lion From Judea: Colonel Mordochai Fritzis , pdf,
- Rhona Lewis: A Jewish Soldier In Greece , The Jewish Press, May 26, 2015
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Frizis, Mardocheos |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Greek military |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 1, 1893 |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 7, 1940 |