Jerzy Ivanov-Szajnowicz

Jerzy Ivanov-Szajnowicz was a Polish-Greek athlete who became a spy and a hero of the Greek Resistance during World War II. He was born in Warsaw in 1911, as the son of a Russian army colonel and a Polish mother. His parents divorced soon after and his mother remarried a Greek, Ioannis Lambrinidis, and moved to Thessaloniki in 1926. Jerzy became a distinguished swimmer and water polo player, winning several national championships in Greece and Poland. He also studied agricultural engineering in Belgium and France, and became a Polish citizen in 1935. When the war broke out, he helped Polish refugees in Thessaloniki and then joined the Polish intelligence and the British Special Operations Executive in the Middle East. He was sent to Greece in 1941 as an undercover agent, using the alias Kiriakos Paryssis. He established an extensive network of informants and saboteurs, reporting on the military and political situation in Greece, the war industry, and the transport routes of the Axis forces. He also carried out many sabotage missions, such as destroying German aircraft engines, sinking German U-boats, and blowing up bridges and railways. He was captured twice by the Gestapo, but managed to escape the first time. The second time, he was tortured and sentenced to death. He was executed by a firing squad in Athens on January 4, 1943. He is regarded as a national hero in Greece, where he has a statue and a sports hall named after him in Thessaloniki. He was also awarded several medals and decorations by Poland, Greece, and the United Kingdom for his bravery and service.