1945 Omnium Dutch Pictorial Gameboard of Life Under Occupation During WWII

This is a 1945 Handelsonderneming Omnium Dutch pictorial gameboard of life under the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II. Played by between two and twelve players, each player starts with four chips. Using two dice, the players move along the game board moving the number of spaces rolled. Whichever player reaches the 100th space at the center of the board, the 'Tree of Liberty' with the seals of the eleven provinces of the Netherlands, is the winner.

The Game's Title

The title, 'Laf en Flink Tijdens Hinkepink', is Dutch slang. 'Laf' refers to the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB), a Dutch fascist political party that called itself a 'movement'. After the outbreak of World War II, the NSB advocated for strict Dutch neutrality, and after Nazi Germany occupied the Netherlands, it became the only legal political party. 'Flink' is Dutch slang for resistance fighters and heroes. 'Hinkepink' is a derogatory nickname for Reich Commissioner of the Netherlands Arthur Seyss-Inquart that directly references the fact that he walked with a limp. His other nickname 'Zes en een kquart' (six and a quarter) was a play on his name and yet another reference to his limp. Seyss-Inquart was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremburg trials after the war, sentenced to death, and executed.

The Special Spaces and the Vignettes

Twenty-three of the ninety-nine circles along the game's path have actions attached to them, which are explained by an index split between the bottom-left and bottom-right corners. Space eight, for example, lauds the player for burying their copper than turn it in and says that the hard work should be rewarded with a beer and tells the player to advance to space thirty-five. Some of these are quite comical, such as space eighteen where the player only hands over the handlebars and saddle when an official comes to collect their bicycle. At space 38 the player evades the S.D. and advances twelve spaces. Other rewarded activities include listening to the B.B.C. (space twenty-eight), getting ration cards to people in hiding (space forty-one), wearing orange in public on the queen's birthday (space fifty-four), helping a downed British airman (space seventy-seven), storing weapons for the resistance (space eighty-four). Acts worthy of punishments include not turning out one's lights during an air raid (space 14), selling food on the black market (space 20), reading Dutch language propaganda (space thirty-two), flying the flag of the N.S.B. (space 49), becoming a member of the 'landwacht' (land guard) (space sixty-one), drinking with the Occupier (space eighty-one), and meeting with 'Hinkepink' (space eight-six), which is illustrated by a Dutch man giving the Nazi salute to Seyss-Inquart.

'Horizontal Collaboration'

Perhaps the most distasteful of these vignettes to modern sensibilities is associated with space ninety-six, where a man is illustrated holding a woman by her hair and is getting ready to cut her hair with a large pair of scissors. This phenomenon happened throughout western Europe and was a punishment for what was dubbed 'horizontal collaboration' by the French. The practice of shaving a women's head harkens back to the Middle Ages and the Visigoths, who would shave a woman's head if she was suspected of adultery. The practice was reintroduced in the early 20th century, beginning with German women who were believed to have had relations with French occupation soldiers after World War I. Nazi Germany also used this punishment if a woman was suspected of the same action with a foreign POW or worker on a farm or in a factory.

Publication History and Census

This game was published by Handelsonderneming Omnium in The Hague in 1945. The OCLC records examples in the collections of Princeton University, the University of Chicago, the San Francisco Public Library, the University of California-Berkeley, the National Library of the Netherlands in The Hague, and Leiden University. This game is rare on the private market.