A bust of a Greek-Jewish officer killed in action on the Albanian front during World War II was unveiled.The ceremony honoring Army Col. Mordechai Frizis, who in December 1940 became one of the first Greek Army officers to die during the Greco-Italian War, was held last Friday at the Jewish Heroes Square in Salonika. National and local government officials, diplomats, the honorary president of the World Council of Hellenes Abroad and representatives of Salonika’s Jewish community were among those in attendance.Frizis was one of nearly 13,000 Jews who served in the Greek armed forces during World War II.”The unveiling of Colonel Frizis’ bust reflects his own heroism and the sacrifices of Greek Jews,” Moses Constantines, president of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, said at the ceremony.The head of Salonika’s Jewish community, David Saltiel, referred to Frizis’ decorated military career, from a Greek military expedition in Ukraine to the Asia Minor campaign of 1919-22 to the Albanian front in 1940.Frizis’ remains were buried at the Salonika Jewish Cemetery in 2004 with full military honors, with then-Greek President Kostis Stephanopoulos in attendance. They had been transferred to Greece from Albania following an intervention by the Greek general army staff.
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