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[On] September 21, Heydrich [Himmler’s chief assistant] forwarded to the Army High Command a copy of his initial “housecleaning” plans. As a first step the Jews were to be herded into the cities (where it would be easy to round them up for liquidation). “The final solution,” he declared, would take some time to achieve and must be kept “strictly secret,” but no general who read the confidential memorandum could have doubted that the “final solution” was extermination. Within two years, when it came time to carry it out, it would become one of the most sinister code names bandied about by high German officials to cover one of the most hideous Nazi crimes of the war.

William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

UBOAT Command War Diary-21 Sept. 1939:

The long awaited report from U 30 was received. The boat put into Reykjavik on the 19th and is at present SE of Iceland. It is now essential to get news of U 39. In radio message 0837 she was ordered for the first time to report her position.

Naval War Staff has sent a T/P to F.O. U/B, ordering that all attacks on French ships are to be avoided at all costs. This means that U-boats cannot operate in the Channel against troop transports. This operation (U 35 see also F.O. U/B West’s War Log) was arranged because of Naval War Staff’s orders that convoys could be attacked North of the Latitude of Brest even if the escort consisted of French Forces.

It can be taken as certain that these transports sail at night; and at night the U-boat must be able to assume that a darkened ship is an enemy ship, even if in convoy. It is often impossible to establish the nationality of ships in convoy even by day and when flags are not being misused, but at night it is quite out of the question.

I therefore informed Naval War Staff that, if this order is to stand, I cannot let the boats operate in the Channel.

At first Naval War Staff would not make a final decision as to conduct towards France, but later Captain Fricke informed me by telephone, that today’s order was cancelled and that things stood as before, i.e. French ships could be sunk without warning if they were proceeding in convoy North of the latitude of Brest.

Avalon Project Telegram from Yesterday:

Telegram
STRICTLY SECRET
Moscow, September 20, 1939-2:23 a. m.
Received September 20, 1939-4:55 a. m.

No. 395 of September 19

Molotov stated to me today that the Soviet Government now considered the time ripe for it, jointly with the German Government, to establish definitively the structure of the Polish area.

In this regard, Molotov hinted that the original inclination entertained by the Soviet Government and Stalin personally to permit the existence of a residual Poland had given way to the inclination to partition Poland along the Pissa-Narew-Vistula-San Line. The Soviet Government wishes to commence negotiations on this matter at once, and to conduct them in Moscow, since such negotiations must be conducted on the Soviet side by persons in the highest positions of authority, who cannot leave the Soviet Union.
Request telegraphic instructions.

SCHULENBURG

MY DAY, September 21, 1939, By Eleanor Roosevelt

(”My Day” was a daily/weekly United Features Syndicate Column, penned by Eleanor Roosevelt herself)

ST. PAUL, Minn., Wednesday—
Always before, when I have been in different parts of the country and have had a full day in any one spot, I have tried to spend part of it visiting either NYA or WPA projects. A number of times Mrs. Ellen Woodward has suggested that I see some of the regional and state offices administering the Social Security program. Today is the first day that I started out to do this.

We got into St. Paul after 10:30 yesterday evening, and were met by a very kind group of ladies. I was particularly glad to see two old friends, Miss Adelaide Enright, who lives here, and Mrs. June Hamilton Rhodes, who is running one part of the Women’s Institute program on which I am speaking tonight. We were soon settled in the penthouse in the Lowry Hotel and glad to find the weather cool and invigorating here. I awoke this morning feeling able to cope with anything.

First was a press conference, at 9 o’clock, and then a little over two hours with the regional director of the Social Security program. This region comprises five states—Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska. The regional office is in Minneapolis. Some of the states do not cooperate on the Dependent Children program, but there is general cooperation on the Old Age Assistance, on Crippled Children and Care of the Blind.

I stopped at one of the refreshment stands run by a blind man, in the Federal Office building, and he seemed very happy in his work. Under the new law, blind people may have stands in public buildings, but no appropriation has been passed to arrange for a revolving fund from which these stands can be set up and gradually amortized. Those set up by private funds seem to be most successful where supervision can be provided and the blind people can be trained in their work.

Of course, the Dependent Children program is always of great interest to me and it is satisfying to see how much Miss Lenroot and the Children’s Bureau have been able to do to make the work of this section more valuable.

Unemployment Compensation is also of great interest to me, and I was delighted to find how closely this part of the Social Security program is working in with the United States Employment Service. They are setting up in this region the Junior Placement service working closely with the NYA, and that also should mean a step forward in the whole picture of employment. After seeing the regional office, we came back to St. Paul and saw the State Administrator’s office and the Employment service.

This program, as a whole, means so much to all the people of the country that I am deeply interested to see development of high standards of personnel, so that in the counties as well as at headquarters the choice of people who work on the program can be made on a basis of ability, regardless of any other consideration.

Mrs. Anna Dickie Oleson came in to pay me a short visit on my return to the hotel.

I will tell you about the rest of the day tomorrow.
E.R.

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