Laf en Flink tijdens Hinkepink – “Coward and Brave during the Hinkepink Era” – Dutch Board Game About the Nazi Occupation of the Netherlands, under the Rule of Seyss-Inquart Until Liberation. The goal of the game is to navigate through the obstacles created by the Nazi occupiers and reach the “Tree of Freedom.” The game reflects the challenging period of Nazi rule under Arthur Seyss-Inquart, the Nazi governor of the Netherlands, until the country’s liberation. Published by OMNIUM, The Hague, 1945.
Board game published in the Netherlands at the end of World War II, named after the Reichskommissar für die besetzten niederländischen Gebiete, Arthur Seyss-Inquart – the Nazi Reich Commissioner for the occupied Dutch territories, who was nicknamed “Hinkepink” due to his limp. Seyss-Inquart, an Austrian jurist, governor of Austria and the Netherlands, and Nazi war criminal, was responsible for numerous war crimes in both Poland and the Netherlands. Upon the occupation of the Netherlands, Seyss initially attempted to approach the Dutch population with conciliatory language, but after the February Strike in 1941, he ruled with an iron fist.
The game consists of one hundred “stations” where the objective is to reach the “Tree of Freedom” in the center of the board. The central area of the board features a flying scroll with the inscription: “Mei 10 1940 – Mei 5 1945” – indicating the timeline from the Nazi occupation. in May 1940 to the liberation of the Netherlands in May 1945. Throughout the board, illustrations of various World War II scenes are displayed. For example, at station 41, a person in hiding uses food ration coupons, and the player receives four tokens. At station 86, the player encounters Hinkepink and, as punishment, must go back eleven spaces, skip a turn, and pay four tokens. At station 28, a collaborator secretly listens to the English channel and transmits messages to Dutch citizens, receiving three tokens. At station 73, a player receives an extra turn as a reward for destroying Hitler’s posters.
In May 1940, following the conquest of the Low Countries, Arthur Seyss-Inquart was appointed governor of the Netherlands, with Hans Böhmcker serving under him as governor of Amsterdam. He supported the Dutch Nazi Party and allowed its members to establish their own armed militia. Seyss-Inquart was a staunch antisemite. Upon assuming his position in the Netherlands, he dismissed all Jews from public service and from key positions in the media and economy, declared the registration of Jews, and established a ghetto in Amsterdam. Out of the 140,000 individuals registered as Jews in the Netherlands, only 13,500 survived. On February 25, 1941, the Dutch declared a general strike demanding an end to the actions against the Jews. The strike was suppressed with overwhelming force. In a public speech on March 12, Seyss-Inquart presented the Dutch people with a stark choice: sympathy for the Jews or cooperation with the occupying authorities.
Size: 72×59 cm (foldable game board). Original box featuring an illustration of Seyss-Inquart performing the Nazi salute. Condition: Very good.
