A Life of Greatness host Sarah Grynberg was at home with her family when she heard about the Bondi Beach massacre.
“I remember it was a Sunday evening in summer, and I simply couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Grynberg told The AJN. “It was devastating.”
On that fateful day, Valentyna and Michael Britvan took their daughters to a Chanukah celebration at Bondi Beach. It was meant to be an afternoon of family, food and celebration.
Instead, gunmen opened fire on the crowd, killing their 10-year-old daughter, Matilda, along with 14 other innocent people.
Nine months on, Matilda’s parents have sat down with Grynberg for their first podcast interview, in a conversation that is devastating and deeply human all at once. Across an hour, they share stories about their lives before Bondi, the daughter they adored, the day everything changed and the ways they are trying to keep going.
Grynberg said she had followed Matilda’s story closely after the attack.
“Like so many others, it broke my heart,” she said. “I wanted to give Michael and Valentyna a safe space to speak not only about what happened that day, but also about their lives before Bondi, their family, their beautiful daughter Matilda, the importance of their Jewish faith and what they believe has been the role of certain Australian media outlets and political parties in fuelling antisemitism.”
The episode begins with the Britvans’ story of migration, rather than the attack itself. Both grew up in Ukraine and came to Australia separately. Michael arrived in 1994 as a 14-year-old with his family through a program reuniting Jewish families.
“My mum kind of always was saying that she was feeling that something can happen there, and she was right,” he said, speaking of Ukraine. His first job was at McDonald’s. He went on to study accounting, work in hotels and eventually start his own tour-driving business.
Valentyna moved to Australia in 2009 to build a better life for her son. “I just loved the climate and Australia is a multicultural country, so I thought I would feel myself at home. And it really worked that way,” she said.
They met online through a Russian-speaking group and connected at a New Year’s party in Sydney in late 2014. Matilda was born the same year, in 2015.
“We haven’t really been apart since we met,” Michael said. You can almost hear the smile in his voice as he talks.
Michael said the name Matilda came to him lying in bed one night. He had always thought it was the most Australian name there was, ever since learning Waltzing Matilda in English school as a teenager. The middle name Bee was meant to give it “a little bit of a buzz”. Their younger daughter, Summer Bee, followed in 2019.
There is a moment early in the episode where Michael reflects on what being Australian means to him. He said that whenever people overseas asked his nationality, his answer was always the same.
“I always say Australian. And they go, oh, but you’ve got an accent. I’m Australian. I was born in Ukraine, Jewish descent. But I feel I’m Australian,” he explained, continuing with a poignant message about multiculturalism. “Bring something good from your place. Bring some good food, good dance, good songs. Don’t bring the hatred.”
Matilda loved maths, reading and doing the splits. She did judo once a week, rode her bicycle around Sydney with her family and played handball at school. A school psychologist tested her class and reported she was the best problem-solver among them. She wanted to be a maths teacher when she grew up.
At school, she would sometimes sit with a book through the entire lunch break while the other children played. “But she was perfectly fine with that,” Valentyna recalled. “She loved maths.”
Weekends revolved around the girls.
[The] girls would always ask us, where we go and who is coming with us,” Valentyna laughed. “Two questions.”
There were trips to Luna Park, Centennial Park, campgrounds, ferry rides and every playground they could find.
The family had attended the Chabad-organised Chanukah by the Sea every year. Michael recalled a photo from when Matilda was just one month old at the same event with Rabbi Eli Schlanger. On December 14, they arrived early and moved through all the activities: face painting, a climbing wall, a petting zoo, ice cream, balloons and bubbles. The girls wanted to do it all. Now, the picture of Matilda in everyone’s hearts is the young girl in a yellow dress with a blue dolphin painted on her face.
“She’s just a beautiful Australian, Jewish girl who could have brought much more to this life, to this world. And now we have to do it for her…”
Minutes before the shooting began at 6.40pm, the girls asked to go to the cinema. But they decided at the last minute to go back to the petting zoo, running off together.
When Michael realised the sounds they were hearing was gunfire, Valentyna ran in one direction looking for the children while he spotted Matilda running back towards them.
“I was screaming, Matilda, Matilda, get down,” he said. When he reached her, he realised she had been shot.
He crawled towards her, took off his shirt and pressed it against her wound while the shooting continued. Michael remembers trying to comfort Matilda as she struggled to breathe.
“I was just saying ‘Matilda, Matilda, come, Matilda, just don’t worry, don’t worry … It’s going to be okay, I’m going to get you, I’m going to save you’,” he shared.
He described bystanders who rushed to help once the gunfire stopped. A doctor still in her swimwear, a paramedic who had been at the beach, strangers who opened their homes to people in distress.
In one of the episode’s most heartbreaking moments, Michael described finding Summer after the attack. She had been sheltered by strangers who opened their flat to families in distress. When he told her he needed to get to the hospital and that she could stay somewhere safe, she refused. “She grabbed my hand. No, I’m going with you,” he said.
Valentyna rode in the ambulance to the children’s hospital. She wasn’t able to sit with Matilda to allow the medical professionals to do their job.
“Australia has the best doctors. Australia has the best medicine. She’s going to be okay,” she recalled telling herself once they got to the hospital, like a mantra. “We still have the best doctors and hospitals. Just, unfortunately, they couldn’t help.”
Grynberg told The AJN that hearing the family’s story directly has had a profound impact.
“Michael and Valentyna are beautiful, everyday people with enormous hearts who love their family and their country,” she said. “I felt deeply honoured that they trusted me and felt comfortable sharing their story so openly.”
Michael spoke about the community support that carried the family through the worst of their grief, sharing that the family isn’t sure how they would have survived the first few weeks especially without it.
During the episode, the Britvans also shared their frustration about antisemitism and the limits of what the Royal Commission can achieve.
“We don’t need guards, we just want to be safe,” Valentyna said.
Michael pointed to political leaders and media outlets he believes have fuelled hatred.
“This hate is firstly in some leadership in parties, which is crazy. And those people bring that hate and antisemitism right into parliament”
The family has established the Matilda Bee Foundation and distributes stickers and pins so people remember her. “All I really want to do is just send out a bee to every person in Australia,” Michael said.
The couple also got married soon after the Bondi massacre on March 6, Valentyna’s birthday.
“I made it easy for him to remember that,” she said. “I’m still forgetting,” Michael replied.
Asked how they find joy now, Valentyna was honest.
“I feel that I can’t really enjoy things that I was enjoying before. I do the same, and I don’t feel that joy anymore.”
Towards the end of the conversation, Summer, who also took part in the interview, remembered her big sister as “funny” and “kind”. When asked what Matilda would always say to her, Summer replied simply: “I love you”.
Asked what he wants the world to know about his daughter, Michael answered with his heart.
“She’s just a beautiful Australian, Jewish girl who could have brought much more to this life, to this world,” he said. “And now we have to do it for her.”
Grynberg said what stayed with her most was the family’s determination to ensure Matilda is remembered not for how she died, but for how she lived.
“Their story is a devastating reminder of the very real human consequences of antisemitism,” she told The AJN. “I hope their calls for a Royal Commission are heard, so there can be an honest examination of what led to Bondi, accountability and meaningful change.
“As Valentyna said, Jewish Australians do not want to live surrounded by guards, they simply want to feel safe in their own country.”
INFOLINE
A Life of Greatness is available on Apple Podcasts, LiSTNR or wherever you get your podcasts. To support Matilda’s legacy, visit matildabee.org.
Sarah recording with Valentyna, Michael and Summer. Photo: supplied
Sarah and Summer. Photo: supplied
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