Moisis Michail Bourlas

Moisis Michail Bourlas ( Greek : Μωυσής Μιχαήλ Μπουρλάς) is a Greek Jewish member of the World War II resistance. He was born Moisis Bourlas on May 9 , 1918 in Cairo . His parents were both Greek Jews, his father from the city of Volos and his mother from the island of 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 Naoussa 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 ( lathe operator). In 1935 , Bourlas became a member of OKNE , the Organization of Communist Youths of Greece. When the WWII erupted, Bourlas was serving in the Engineers' Arms of the Greek Military in the Greek part of Thrace . As an army bridge constructor, he was transferred to the Albanian front to combat the Italian invasion of 1940 - 1941 , where he fought in the front line. In February 1943 , right after the Nazi occupation forces had imposed their "racial measures" that eventually led to the Holocaust , Bourlas joined the rebel forces of ELAS (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 Varkiza agreement that preluded the Greek Civil War , Bourlas was arrested for his political convictions and exiled in the Greek islands of Icaria , Makronisos and Ai Stratis . Thanks to a Greek-Israeli agreement in 1951 , Bourlas was released from his exile and immigrated to Israel . He worked there as a turner, while he was actively involved in the Communist Party of Israel and the workers' movement. He stayed in Israel until 1967 , when the anti-communism of the Israeli society developed after the Six-Day War forced him and his Russian Jewish wife to flee the country. After a short stay in Bulgaria , Bourlas and his wife went to the Soviet Union , where they established in a town near 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 Sukhumi in the 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. He continues to be actively involved in the Greek left and the city's affairs. In 2002 , he ran as a candidate for the city council of Thessaloniki, in the ticket of "Thessaloniki for Citizens and Ecology" led by Tasos Kourakis .¹