BY LAURA ROE

I met Leo Frangis on the afternoon of May 9. As we ate lunch, he boasted about his two sons, like many fathers do, and talked about his wife and his activities with the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation.

It was hard to imagine that this extremely polite, yet flirtatious and somewhat gregarious Greek man, could ever have experienced the type of bleak brutality from which many never recover.

Between the ages of sixteen and twenty-six, Frangis spent his entire youth fighting. He fought with the Greek underground resistance, the Greek army in World War II and later with the Greek and Allied forces against the communists vying for control of the strategic country.

It is quite amazing that Frangis decided to move to Atlanta - not knowing the language - and enrolled in Georgia State's School of Accountancy, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1960.

"When I came to Atlanta, I did not open my mouth and say good morning," Frangis says. His Greek accent, after all these years, is still remarkably thick. He laughs and adds that his wife of 32 years, Nini, still thinks his English is a little poor.

But Frangis wasn't daunted by the language barrier. Besides, nothing could be as harrowing as what he experienced in war. So he enrolled in the College and worked nights as a bartender in his uncle's Ship Ahoy Restaurant to support himself.

"When I was here, it (the College of Business Administration) was located in a garage on Ivy Street (now Peachtree Center Avenue). The classes had forty to fifty people in them," he says.

When told about the College's recent rankings, Frangis replies, "I go all over the country conducting audits and I feel wonderful. Georgia State became a major university, especially the business school. I am very proud to be a graduate from Georgia State."

After graduating, Frangis began his career with the accounting firm Kanes Benator & Company L.L.C., where he has been an associate for over 35 years.

Before the advent of World War II, Frangis was only able to attend one semester at the University of Athens in its School of Chemistry before the university closed due to the German occupation.

Near Misses

Since his father had died the year before, he felt obligated to protect his mother and provide for them both. Athens, where Frangis and his mother lived, was a pivotal city that both the Italians and the Germans fought to occupy.

As Frangis wrote in his book of memoirs, My Story, the blackout and the air raids began in 1940 and became a way of life, which was to continue for almost four years. "The airplanes were first Italian, then German and, during the occupation, became British and American," he says.

At the age of seventeen, Frangis was put in a concentration camp by the Gestapo because his father, a Greek national, had lived and worked in Russia and was considered a Russian citizen. By sheer luck, as Frangis was being sent to Germany with the other prisoners, an interpreter with the Greek Immigration Service noticed him - realized that he was not a Russian - and pulled him out of the camp.

Frangis and his family survived many near misses, such as the time during an air raid when an Italian bomb fell on a home approximately one-half mile from his own.

There was also the great famine of the winter of 1941/42 when most Greek citizens went without food.

"It was something that no one except the people who lived there can describe," says Frangis.

"There was no food. All the grocery stores, bakeries and any stores selling food were closed. The police, under the existing puppet government, had issued food ration cards, and people stood in line all day to get a few beans, bread or vegetables. There was no meat or butter. The black market was flourishing. Dogs and cats were sold as lamb or rabbits. People were falling in the streets, dying from hunger."

Frangis witnessed those depressing scenes day after day. But he and his mother were saved, literally, by the church when the Archbishop arranged for Frangis's mother to be hired by the Archdiocese and the Red Cross, where they rarely went hungry.

War Years

Frangis stayed in Greece and joined the National Resistance Underground Organization where his main activities included the gathering of information and the publishing and distribution of daily radio bulletins and other underground material.

Although Greece was finally liberated in October, 1944, it was just the beginning of the internal strife throughout the small country as the communists attempted to take control. During the same month of liberation, Greek communist execution squads began attacking non- communists and executed many of Frangis's friends. By early December, the Communist Revolution began - Athens was again at war. Frangis joined the British and Greek forces and fought the battle of Athens and in western Macedonia. During this time, Frangis was awarded the Medal of National Resistance for extraordinary service.

Frangis also served in Egypt from 1945 to 1947 when he was transferred to the British School of Armored Cars and Tanks. When communist guerrilla bands became a threat yet again to Greece, Frangis joined operations against the guerrillas in the mountains of Elikon and Parnassos, which lasted until 1949. During this time, Frangis suffered intensely from continuous snow and freezing when he wasn't fighting in one of many bloody battles.

The height of brutality during the conflict, according to Frangis, can be described with one Greek word: "Pedomasoma" - a compound word that literally means "the gathering up of children." The communists in March 1948 confiscated over 28,000 children between the ages of nine and fourteen and sent them to live behind the Iron Curtain.

"Pedomasoma was a brutal abduction of 28,000 children from their families. It would serve the propaganda of the communists that they were protecting children from the dangers imposed on civilians by the Greek Armed Forces. But the real reason for having the children held as hostages in communist countries was so that the parents would have to continue their loyalty to the communist cause. No one knows where these children, adults by now, are," he says.

Hope for a Better Day

Frangis survived. And although he saw the darkest side of life, his faith in humanity never dissipated and his commitment to family and country remained strong.

"Nowadays this feeling of belonging to your country, church and family is not so strong, especially among the young generation, not only in America but all over the world," Frangis wrote in his book of memoirs.

Frangis continued to live by his ideals once in Atlanta. After relocating, Frangis sent for his mother, Eleni, who spent her later years here. And Frangis remained active in the church - serving as president of the Parish Council for two terms and currently on the Diocesan Council of the Diocese of Atlanta. And through his efforts to keep Greek culture and community alive in Atlanta, Frangis helped to implement the annual Greek festivals.

"Because the attitude of people all over has changed, we may no longer need the feelings and attitudes of my time. But who knows, some day in the future, we may go back to the days of faith, commitment and sacrifice, which for me was a normal way of life."

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