Source: J. Noakes & G. Pridham, eds., Nazism 1919-45 - A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts, Vol. 1, The Nazi Party, State and Society 1919-1939, (New York 1983), pp. 545-47.
Investigations were made in several government districts with the aim of finding out which peasants still have business contacts with Jewish dealers, particularly cattle dealers. These investigations produced shocking results. They showed that a large percentage of peasants still have business dealings with Jews. Thus, it was established that in Regierungsbezirg Schwaben-Neuburg alone over 1,500 peasants had had commercial contacts with Jewish cattle dealers over the years 1936-7. It is suggested that the reason for this deplorable state of affairs is the fact that there is a lack of trustworthy Aryan cattle dealers with capital in the countryside so that the peasants are compelled to do business with the Jews. Thus, for example, 80-90 per cent of the cattle trade at the Noerdlingen market is in Jewish hands. This is only partly true because, as a result of the regulations of the Reich and Prussian Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Gestapo cannot do anything to control this evil. The deeper reason for it, however, lies in the attitude of the peasantry who show a complete lack of awareness of race. The investigations which are not yet completed already demonstrate that, particularly in those districts where political Catholicism is still in control, the peasants are so infected by the teachings of an aggressive political Catholicism that they are deaf to any discussion of the racial problem. This situation indicates further that the majority of the peasants are completely immune to the ideological teachings of National Socialism and that only material disadvantages will compel them to enter into a business relationship with Aryan dealers. The Bavarian State peasant organisation in the Reich Food Estate was, therefore, informed of all those peasants who are known to by from Jews so that all the privileges of the Reich Food Estate can be denied to them.
