ATHENS – In a fitting tribute to his heroism – climbing up under the Acropolis in 1941 with his friend Apostolos Santas – to bring down the Nazi swastika and raise the Greek flag, it was lowered to half staff there to mark the death of Manolis Glezos.

While being hospitalized, he passed from heart failure at age 97 after a life in which he was imprisoned for being a Leftist and seen as a hero around the world to resistance fighters of all persuasions admiring his courage and decency.

In a post on social media Prime Minister and New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the gesture was a tribute to a “great Greek,” who had been persecuted for his patriotism because of his political beliefs.

The Nazis sentenced him to death in absentia but never caught up to him and in his later years he was for a while a lawmaker in the Greek Parliament and Member of the European Parliament for the then-ruling Radical Left SYRIZA before breaking away after then-Premier Alexis Tsipras broke anti-austerity vows and hit workers, pensioners and the poor with more brutal measures.