SWIDNICA, Poland — Baron Manfred von Richthofen buzzed above the World War I battlefields in his red Fokker triplane, downing a record 80 Allied aircraft on his way to becoming the war’s top fighter ace and earning the famed “Red Baron” nom de guerre. But von Richthofen, who was shot down and killed just before his 26th birthday in 1918, has been a legend in limbo since Poland’s borders moved west after World War II and swallowed the baron’s hometown of Schweidnitz — today called Swidnica. The neglect has been largely because of apprehension about honoring a German, a legacy of the Nazi invasion and occupation of World War II.
Swidnica resident Jerzy Gaszynski is trying to change that with a new memorial to the Red Baron and reckons he might even pull in a few tourists at the same time. In June, Gaszynski erected a memorial plaque and bust in the garden of the von Richthofen family home.
![[prison 19] Caption: This is Cellhouse 1, Pod A, from ground level inside the Sterling Correctional Facility which is located outside of Sterling, Colorado Thursday afternoon. Photographer: LEW SHERMAN Title: FREELANCE Credit: SPECIAL TO THE POST City: Sterling State: CO Country: USA Date: 19990617 ObjectName: prison 19 Keyword: PUBDATE____1999_06_22](/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/20151207__denverpostp1.jpg?w=538 "20151207__denverpost~p1.jpg")
