Moisis Michail Bourlas

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Moisis Michail Bourlas (

Jewish member of the World War II
resistance.

Biography

He was born Moisis Bourlas on May 9, 1918 in

Khios. Moisis was the fourth child of a large family. His parents were forced to return to Greece due to financial problems. The Bourlas family first established in Naousa and then in Thessaloniki
. Since his childhood Moisis assisted his father who was employed in a bakery.

After finishing high school, he became an apprentice turner (

Greek National Liberation Army) under the alias "Byron", and fought in the 30th Regiment on the mountain of Paiko near Kilkis
.

In the summer of 1945, after the

Ural mountains
. During his stay in the Soviet Union, Bourlas adopted the middle name "Michail".

Bourlas continued to work as a turner until 1982, when he became a pensioner and started his efforts to return to Greece. He established in the city of

Georgian SSR, where he became a Greek language teacher to the young Greek students of the area. He returned to Greece in August 1990, without any resources or financial aid, where he started a new struggle to survive and regain his Greek citizenship
that he had lost when he emigrated to Israel. Bourlas eventually succeeded to regain his citizenship in 1999. In 2000, he published his autobiography "Greek, Jew and Left" (Greek: Έλληνας, Εβραίος και Αριστερός) under the name of Moisis Michail Bourlas.

During the last years of his life, Moisis Michail Bourlas lived in the Saoul Modiano Home for the Elderly in Thessaloniki. He continued to be actively involved in the Greek left and the city's affairs. In 2002 and again in 2006, he ran as a candidate for the city council of Thessaloniki, in the ticket of "Thessaloniki for Citizens and Ecology" led by Tasos Kourakis. He died on March 17, 2011. His remains are buried in the Jewish cemetery of Stavroupoli, Thessaloniki.

See also

  • History of Modern Greece

References

  • Bourlas, Moisis Michail (autobiography). Έλληνας, Εβραίος και Αριστερός (Greek, Jewish and Left). Nisides.
    ISBN 960-8480-74-4
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moisis_Michail_Bourlas&oldid=1208445066"