Oct. 19, 1942: Members of the Van Nuys “Chain Gang” are blamed for a riot that broke out at a carnival in Glendale, leaving one man near death from stab wounds and five others injured.
About 30 members of the gang attacked carnival workers with bicycle chains, knives and pieces of pipe, The Times said. Police arrested 13 people on charges including assault with a deadly weapon, carrying a concealed weapon, refusing to disperse and disturbing the peace.
Father Raphael Collard, in a homily delivered in French during a special service at Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, calls for the defense of French Jews from Nazi persecution.
“In defending the Jews we are actually protecting the idealism of Christians,” Collard said.
“In a pastoral letter read in all churches, Catholics of France were ordered to conceal Jews at any cost to save them from the tortures of the conquering hordes. Priests refusing to surrender Jews to the Nazis were placed under arrest and many imprisoned. The glory of their courage will not be forgotten,” Collard said.
ladailymirror.com 
The story about Father Collard at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills, resonated with us as our oldest sister, Joanne, was married there 5 years later. Very tense times in 1942, but our U.S. population all seemed to rally together as a family. We were proud, indeed, to be Americans.
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I must say I am surprized. We keep hearing how the French caved in to the nazis and handed over the Jews. I am glad there were exceptions.
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