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February 7th, 1939 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Minesweeper HMS Sphinx launched.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Prague: In conversation with the Czech Minister for Foreign Affairs, the French Minister in Prague, M. V. De Lacroix, is told that the Germans place an importance to the Jewish question which is out of all proportion to the other questions remaining between themselves and the Czechs, such as the status of the current frontiers.

He relates that the Foreign Minister of the Reich (von Ribbentrop), as well as the Chancellor (Hitler), are said to have stated emphatically that it was not possible to given a German guarantee to a State which does not eliminate the Jews:

"Do not imitate the sentimental and leisurely manner in which we ourselves treated this problem," the two statesmen are reported to have said. "Our kindness was nothing but weakness, and we regret it. This vermin must be destroyed. The Jews are our sworn enemies, and at the end of this year there will not be a Jew left in Germany. Neither the French, nor the Americans, nor the English are responsible for the difficulties in our relations with Paris, London, or Washington. Those responsible are the Jews. We will give similar advice to Romania, Hungary, etc.... Germany will seek to form a bloc of anti-Semitic States, as she would not be able to treat as friends the States in which the Jews, either through their economic activity or through their high positions, could exercise any kind of influence."

(Above from the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School.)

U.S.A.: Submarine USS Sargo commissioned.

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