War horror and touching encounters: actor Béla Klentze almost paid with his life for a relief effort in Ukraine.
What horror, what emotions. According to a report, actor Béla Klentze (35) almost didn’t survive his mission for the people of Ukraine. The “Alles was zählt” star and former “Let’s Dance” participant traveled to the war-torn country for a total of nine days to deliver relief supplies. He was just able to leave one of his locations before it was bombed and destroyed.
“Special feeling of gratitude”
In 2018, he was still dancing with professional partner Oana Nechiti (36) in the RTL show “Let’s Dance”. The couple took a good seventh place. At that time, Klentze was still part of the main cast of the RTL soap “Alles was zählt”. From 2021, he devoted himself to other projects, such as founding his band “Stairway to Violet”. Since April 2022, a merciless war has been raging in Ukraine, which also affected Klentze. The Munich actor decided to travel to the war zone to deliver relief supplies: “With a small team, we went over with an aid organization and a security team,” Klentze told “Bild”. In the front-line city of Zaporizhia, they visited a children’s home and distributed food, clothing and toys. He felt a “very special feeling of gratitude”.
“I almost died.”
During his nine-day stay in Ukraine, Klentze experienced the merciless war and the daily madness of war first hand: “At first, we immediately took cover and fled to bunkers whenever there was an air raid warning. But after two days, you had almost gotten used to it – as crazy as that sounds.” Then came the day when he narrowly escaped death: “I almost died in Ukraine. The place where we lived was bombed and destroyed 24 hours later. Despite that, I have not regretted our commitment for a second. It is so important to get involved in the right things.”
Impressive encounter with Ukrainian girl
He will also remember forever his encounter with a Ukrainian girl, ten-year-old Anstasia, whose father is fighting in the war as a soldier. She stared at Klentze “during our visit and probably saw a kind of father figure in me because her dad is currently at war. We don’t know yet whether he will ever return.”
The moved Ukraine aid worker continues: “The little girl came up to me and took me in her arms […]. And then we both started crying. It was really indescribable.” Klentze wants to use the video of the encounter, which a cameraman friend of his happened to record, with the consent of the girl’s mother, for a music video for his new song “Save the Planet”. In it, he and his band point out the world’s crisis areas.
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
