Is it true that the Polish bookstore, along with Zelensky’s biography, recommends buying “Mein Kampf” and books about the Volyn massacre?

In August 2023, a screenshot of a Polish online store page appeared on social networks, according to which customers who are interested in a book about the Ukrainian president are also advised to read about Bandera and Hitler. We checked if this is true.

The screenshot began circulating on August 5th. For example, in the Telegram channel “Rita Ebzeeva” (126,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) a picture escorted with this description: “Polish online bookstore. If you buy books about Zelensky, then in the “You may like” section, the store automatically offers books about the Volyn massacre, the UPA and, suddenly, “Mein Kampf.” Interesting logical chain. By the way, the very presence of Hitler’s book in the public domain in Poland is surprising.” Blogger Alexander Semchenko (91,000 views) writes: “Books adoring Zelensky’s propaganda speeches are in the same section as books about the Nazis.”

Similar posts can be found in Telegram channels “Sexton"(58,000), "Mikhalkov on Telegram"(16,000), Zanoza (14,000), PeachBlossom (14,000), "ZhS Premium" (10,000), "Olesya Loseva" (10,000), "Odessa public television Z"(6000) and others, as well as in public pages and on personal pages of VKontakte users (examples here, here, here, here And here).

The distributed screenshot shows the book “Zelensky. Biography" (Zelenski. Biografia) Polish journalist Wojciech Rohaczyn. This real-life work about the life path of the President of Ukraine was released published by Wielka Litera in May 2022. The publications do not specify which site they are talking about, but the “Verified” interface determined that it is a book site shop Tania Książka, where Zelensky’s biography is really sold with a discount for 26.23 zloty.

The screenshot below mentions other books also available in this store:

• "Butchers from OUN-UPA» (Rzeźnicy z OUN-UPA) Marek A. Kaprowski. From the annotation it follows that the author “reveals the history and activities of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, as well as the biography and views of Stepan Bandera”;
• "Warsaw children of '44. True stories of children in the rebellious Warsaw"(Warszawskie dzieci '44. Prawdziwe historie dzieci w powstańczej Warszawie) Agnieszka Kubala. The author talks about the lives of children in the early stages of the Warsaw Uprising;
• "Volyn betrayed, or How the command of the Home Army abandoned the Poles to the mercy of the UPA» (Wołyń zdradzony, czyli jak dowództwo AK porzuciło Polaków na pastwę UPA) Piotr Zychowicz. According to the description on the site, the author reveals the reasons for the mass extermination of Poles by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the 1940s;
• "Wolf children"(Wilcze dzieci) by Violetta Savitskaya. The book tells the story of children orphaned by the evacuation of East Prussia and the subsequent advance of the Red Army in 1945;
• "Unexplained Mysteries of World War II"(Niewyjaśnione tajemnice II wojny światowej) by William Breuer. “100 of the most mysterious episodes, unexplained facts and unusual coincidences: amazing events, unsolved mysteries, disappeared people, eerie premonitions and strange encounters,” the description says;
• "Mein Kampf. Critical edition» Eugeniusz Cezary Krul. From the abstract: “Given the terrible consequences of the Nazi leader’s rule, many are asking the question: can traces of the madness that would later lead the world to the brink of the abyss be found in the book he wrote?” In this publication, the Polish historian and political scientist analyzes the work of Adolf Hitler.

Thus, the statement that the Polish bookstore sold Mein Kampf is not entirely correct, since the site contains a critical edition analyzing Hitler's work.

As for the screenshot itself, “Verified” didn't find it Może i się spodobać section on the website taniaksiazka.pl. Moreover, the phrase “You may like” is misspelled in Polish - it should be Może ci się spodobać, but also this combination of words in the online store meets exclusively in summaries and reviews. “Verified” also noticed that the font of the section title in the screenshot is different from what is used on the site.

Finally, we contacted the representative of Tania Książka through the company’s official social networks. “I inform you that when you add an item to your cart, the information on our store’s website is displayed differently than in the sent screenshot. We don’t have a “You may like” tab on our website, especially since there is an error in the posted screenshot,” the response says. And the store’s customer service specialist, Gabriela Kropivnitskaya, called the viral image a photomontage in an email.

In fact, if on the website taniaksiazka.pl put add to cart book “Zelensky. Biography", then the "Learn about other fascinating familiar and unfamiliar figures" section will be displayed first with link on the list of biographical bestsellers. Next, apart from the offer of backpacks and writing instruments, there will be two more tabs. On the first, similar products are recommended, according to the site’s algorithms: books are presented there about Polish war correspondents, Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI And autobiography of an Italian priest. The last section is devoted to books that site visitors buy along with the biography of the Ukrainian president: among them are several novels from Polish authors (one of them is called “Chasing a Nazi") and the book "Vova, Volodya, Vladimir. Secrets of Putin's Russia"

The earliest publication with a screenshot “Verified” was found in the Telegram channel “Shaman Rahu"(4000 views), where the post appeared on August 5 at 10:55 Moscow time. The entry clarifies that the image was sent by some anonymous subscribers from Warsaw. This channel repeatedly distributed anti-Ukrainian fakes, some of which were also based on materials allegedly sent by readers.

Thus, we can confidently say that the distributed screenshot was faked: unknown persons edited the real screenshot, carelessly adding a non-existent section there. It is likely that the recommended list of works about the Second World War itself is also real, but was taken from the page of some work on this topic, and not Zelensky’s biography.

Cover photo: Replyua.net

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Is it true that Vladimir Zelensky wrote the book “My Struggle”?
2. Is it true that Vladimir Putin wrote the book “My Struggle”?
3. Is it true that Ukraine published a textbook on the country’s history with caricatures of Zelensky on the cover?
4. Factcheck.kz. "Is it true that Zelensky’s biography is being sold in Poland at a huge discount due to lack of demand?»