About Reynard the Fox. (Nederland Film, 1943)

Van Genechten was born in 1895, in Antwerp, Belgium, where he studied law and began his political career in the Flemish Nationalist Movement. When Flemish activists were persecuted during World War I for their collaboration with the Germans, he fled to the neutral Netherlands, but was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison. He settled in Utrecht, where he established a law firm with A. J. van Vessem (who later won a seat in the Dutch Parliament for the NSB). In 1934, he became a member of the NSB (Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging = National Socialist Movement), led by Anton Adriaan Mussert, and distinguished himself as an editor of Nieuw Nederland. When the Germans invaded Holland in 1940, he was briefly imprisoned, only to be released after the Dutch Army capitulated. The NSB then rewarded him with the position of Procurator-General at the court in The Hague, and Mussert later appointed him Head of the Department of Socio-Cultural Training and of the Educator's Guild.

About Reynard the Fox takes place in Flanders (Belgium, where, after the death of King Nobel, a fierce power struggle takes place. Lionel the Lion, the king's young son, lacks the strength and knowledge to take his father's place, so the donkey Boudewijn usurps the throne.

Smidswater 20, The Hague. Animators working in the studio where About Reynard the Fox was produced, March 1942. Photo Barten Collection, Zaandam.

While the animals argue whether or not Boudewijn is a legitimate successor to the throne, "a most peculiar animal that no one knew" announces himself: Jodocus, the rhinoceros. (The Dutch word for rhinoceros is neushoorn, which literally means nose horn; as to Jodocus, it should be noted that the Dutch word for Jew is jood.) He asks the donkey for a place in the empire. "I come from far away-countries," he says. "Everywhere I wandered and everywhere I was persecuted because unfortunately I applied myself to the cultivation of thistles. I breed a thistle variety of unknown fineness, but the envious people don't want to recognize me. Give me a modest little place in your empire, where I can modestly grow my thistles." Boudewijn agrees.