Chap­ter 7 of Revenge of the Tip­ping Point, titled “The L.A. Sur­vivors’ Club,” explores the lives of Holo­caust sur­vivors liv­ing in Los Ange­les, par­tic­u­lar­ly focus­ing on Fred Dia­ment, Siegfried Hal­bre­ich, and Masha Loen. Fred, known as Fred­die, was a “low num­ber” sur­vivor who endured unimag­in­able hor­rors at Konzen­tra­tionslager Sach­sen­hausen and Auschwitz, los­ing both his father and broth­er along the way. Despite his trau­mat­ic past, Fred­die rebuilt his life and became a suc­cess­ful CEO in Los Ange­les. His resilience was com­ple­ment­ed by his sharp, dark humor, which was often remarked upon by Rachel Lith­gow from Spielberg’s Shoah Foun­da­tion. Lithgow’s obser­va­tions under­score Freddie’s abil­i­ty to blend humor with the sor­row of his expe­ri­ences. The bond between Fred­die and Sig, anoth­er Holo­caust sur­vivor who had served as a phar­ma­cist in the camps, is high­light­ed through­out the chap­ter, illus­trat­ing their deep friend­ship, which was marked by both shared laugh­ter and occa­sion­al dis­agree­ments.

Freddie’s death in 2004 was met with an emo­tion­al­ly charged eulo­gy deliv­ered by Sig, which cap­tured the essence of their rela­tion­ship and brought laugh­ter even amidst the grief of loss. Masha Loen, anoth­er Holo­caust sur­vivor, also shared her incred­i­ble sto­ry of sur­vival, hav­ing over­come mul­ti­ple typhus infec­tions. Her resilience shone through even in the con­text of a Pesach (Passover) cel­e­bra­tion, where she humor­ous­ly dis­missed tra­di­tion­al dietary restric­tions, reflect­ing her abil­i­ty to find humor in her suf­fer­ing. Masha, like Fred­die and Sig, became an inte­gral part of the Los Ange­les sur­vivors’ com­mu­ni­ty, a group of indi­vid­u­als unit­ed by their shared past and a desire to pre­serve their sto­ries. These sur­vivors, who had endured unspeak­able hor­rors, found strength in one anoth­er, forg­ing last­ing friend­ships and build­ing a sup­port­ive com­mu­ni­ty in the face of their trau­mat­ic his­to­ries.

Fred­die, Sig, and Masha played piv­otal roles in the for­ma­tion of the Los Ange­les sur­vivors’ club, an ini­tia­tive to pre­serve the mem­o­ry of the Holo­caust and pro­vide a space for sur­vivors to share their expe­ri­ences. What began as small gath­er­ings of indi­vid­u­als grew into a sub­stan­tial com­mu­ni­ty effort, fos­ter­ing a col­lec­tive mis­sion to remem­ber and hon­or those lost. Their work led to the cre­ation of the Mar­tyrs Memo­r­i­al Muse­um, the first Holo­caust muse­um in the Unit­ed States, which opened its doors in 1961. This muse­um became a cru­cial insti­tu­tion in the fight to ensure that the atroc­i­ties of the Holo­caust were not for­got­ten, offer­ing a place for edu­ca­tion, remem­brance, and reflec­tion. Over the years, this ini­tia­tive inspired the cre­ation of Holo­caust memo­ri­als across the Unit­ed States, mark­ing a sig­nif­i­cant cul­tur­al shift in how the nation regard­ed the Holo­caust and its sur­vivors.

The chap­ter con­cludes by dis­cussing the broad­er impact of these efforts, high­light­ing a cul­tur­al shift in the Unit­ed States regard­ing the mem­o­ry of the Holo­caust. Ini­tial­ly, the Holo­caust had been over­looked in ear­ly Amer­i­can his­to­ries, but as sur­vivors like Fred­die, Sig, and Masha shared their sto­ries, aware­ness and recog­ni­tion grew. This trans­for­ma­tion in pub­lic per­cep­tion, large­ly dri­ven by the sur­vivors’ efforts, played a cru­cial role in shap­ing how future gen­er­a­tions would learn about the Holo­caust. Lithgow’s work with the Shoah Foun­da­tion fur­ther under­scores the pow­er of sto­ry­telling and shared expe­ri­ences in trans­form­ing soci­etal atti­tudes. The sur­vivors’ voic­es became an essen­tial part of the broad­er his­tor­i­cal nar­ra­tive, ensur­ing that the mem­o­ry of the Holo­caust would be pre­served for future gen­er­a­tions. Through their resilience and com­mit­ment to remem­ber­ing, these sur­vivors cre­at­ed a last­ing lega­cy, demon­strat­ing the impor­tance of com­mu­ni­ty and shared his­to­ry in shap­ing nation­al con­scious­ness.

The chap­ter sheds light on how the sur­vivors’ per­son­al expe­ri­ences became a vital part of the larg­er cul­tur­al con­ver­sa­tion sur­round­ing the Holo­caust. Their cre­ation of a sup­port­ive com­mu­ni­ty not only helped them heal but also played an instru­men­tal role in edu­cat­ing the pub­lic about the hor­rors they had endured. The sur­vivors’ efforts demon­strate the impor­tance of col­lec­tive action in pre­serv­ing his­tor­i­cal mem­o­ry and ensur­ing that tragedies like the Holo­caust are nev­er for­got­ten. Through their ded­i­ca­tion to remem­brance, they influ­enced a sig­nif­i­cant cul­tur­al shift, ensur­ing that their sto­ries and the sto­ries of those who per­ished would con­tin­ue to res­onate with future gen­er­a­tions.