Alex Kleytman survived one of the darkest chapters in human history. He did not survive a summer evening in Sydney.
The Holocaust survivor was killed during the Bondi terror attack last month, dying as he shielded his wife of nearly six decades from gunfire. For Larisa Kleytman, the loss has left a silence she says is almost unbearable.
“We met each other in 1968,” she said quietly.
They spent close to 60 years side by side. Now, a month without Alex feels like a lifetime.
“It is so quiet. It’s killing me,” Larisa told A Current Affair. “This one killing me, it’s so quiet. I am alone now, that’s it. I have to survive, I have to live for my kids and grandkids.”
Larisa says their marriage was built on deep loyalty and gentleness. “For 57 years we never have any argument.”
Alex was born in the Soviet Union and was still a baby when World War II began. Along with his mother and younger brother, he survived the Holocaust in Siberia – a brutal escape from a fate that claimed millions.
In time, Alex and Larisa married and moved to Australia, searching for safety and a better life. They found it. Together they raised two children and welcomed 11 grandchildren, building what Larisa describes as a beautiful, ordinary life.
“Oh, he was absolutely crazy grandfather,” she said. “He was so proud about his kids.”
That life was shattered on December 14 during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach – an event meant to mark light, strength and joy.
“We saw it’s not fireworks, it’s just bullets going,” Larisa recalled. “Somebody shout ‘lay’, everybody just lay.”
She couldn’t lie down quickly enough.
“I push myself on the knee, push my head under the chair,” she said. “Suddenly I hear like, ‘Ahh!’ from his voice and he fall in front of me.”
Larisa believes Alex was shielding her when he was shot.
“Fifteen people dead. Of course I’m angry,” she said.
In the days that followed, Larisa says she functioned on instinct alone.
“It was like robot – I just do, I just do. I try not push any feeling because if I will, I will be sitting in shock and do nothing.”
Amid the grief, she received a personal letter from Buckingham Palace, a gesture that stunned her.
“It’s unbelievable to receive letter from King,” she said. “It was very personal. All this, all for him.”
What has sustained her most, she says, is the community that has gathered around her. “People I never saw before in my life. They came, they just speak with me. They bring food, they bring anything.”
Larisa hopes the terror attack forces change, and a renewed commitment to safety without fear.
“They have to be feeling safe,” she said. “I don’t think it’s right when in synagogue – four policemen and guns. It’s not right. We should feel free, like everybody else.”
For her, and for Australia, the loss of Alex Kleytman is a wound that will not easily heal.
“It’s horrible memory,” she said. “But Australia have to remember what has happened.”
Images: A Current Affair
