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.” Released after the war by OMNIUM Publishing in The Hague, Netherlands, 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 “Laf en Flink during Hinkepink” – Dutch Game about the Nazi Occupation of the Netherlands, Under Seyss-Inquart’s Rule, Until Liberation.
This board game, created in the aftermath of World War II, is named after Arthur Seyss-Inquart, the Nazi Reichskommissar for the occupied Netherlands, known as “Hinkepink” due to his limp. Seyss-Inquart, an Austrian lawyer and Nazi war criminal, was responsible for numerous war crimes in Poland and the Netherlands. Upon the German occupation of the Netherlands, Seyss-Inquart attempted to approach the Dutch population with gentle language but ruled with an iron fist following the February strike of 1941.
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, after the occupation of the Low Countries, Seyss-Inquart was appointed governor of the Netherlands and oversaw the brutal Nazi occupation. He supported the Dutch Nazi Party and allowed them to form their own armed militia. An ardent anti-Semite, Seyss-Inquart purged all Jews from public service, key media positions, and the economy, declared the registration of Jews, and created a ghetto in Amsterdam. Of the 140,000 Jews registered in the Netherlands, only 13,500 survived.
In February 1942, the Dutch resistance organized a general strike demanding an end to actions against the Jews. The strike was violently suppressed, and on March 12, Seyss-Inquart publicly presented the Dutch population with an ultimatum – support 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.
