No, an Arabic translation of 'Mein Kampf' was not 'prominently displayed' in a Swedish library

By: Christian Haag
November 28 2023

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Source: X/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts

Context

On November 21, the Swedish news site Bulletin published an article claiming that an Arabic translation of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" was "prominently displayed" at Malmö City Library in Sweden. 

In the following days, the claims went viral and were shared by newspapers, social media users, and organizations. The Jerusalem Post published the claim on November 21, and the European Jewish Congress posted similar on X (formerly Twitter) the following day, racking up 400,000 views. The claim has also spread on Instagram and in Swedish media. 

However, the claim is false.

In fact

Logically Facts contacted Malmö City Library, who refuted the claim. The book is not an Arabic translation of "Mein Kampf" but an Arabic biography of Adolf Hitler written by Farid Al-Falouji. Tereza Franzén, communications officer at Malmö Libraries, also pointed out that no Malmö library carries an Arabic translation of "Mein Kampf." 

It is not known who displayed the book at the library. Franzén told Logically Facts that it was not library staff and the book should not have been displayed. Following the event, the library has moved both the Swedish and English versions of "Mein Kampf" and Al-Falouji's biography into storage. 

Sydsvenskan, who also fact-checked the claim, notes that there is no Arabic translation of "Mein Kampf" at Malmö City Library or any Swedish libraries, according to Libris, Sweden's combined library catalog, which features 7 million titles. A search for "Mein Kampf" in Arabic (كفاحي) on Libris only provides one result, an Arabic translation of Norwegian author Karl Olof Knausgård's novel "My Struggle." 

When translated, the title of Al-Falouji's book reads, "A new reading of Hitler's memoirs and his end," indicating that it is not a translation of "Mein Kampf" but a biography and commentary by the author. The bottom sentence on the cover reads, "The tricks and stylings of Farid Al-Falouji."

"Mein Kampf," translated to My Struggle, is a political manifesto written by Adolf Hitler in 1924 during his imprisonment after the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 and became an important book within the Nazi movement. It compiled Hitler's antisemitic and racist worldview and was banned in many countries, including Germany – until its copyright expired in 2015, allowing for an academic copy to be published.  

The verdict

Since the book at the Malmö City Library is not "Mein Kampf" but a biography of Adolf Hitler, and the library did not put it up for display, we have marked this claim as false.