Max Schmeling (1905)
Schmeling was a German boxer who, in his greatest upset, knocked out future world heavyweight champion Joe Louis—then an unbeaten 22-year-old contender—in 1936. When they met again in a hugely hyped 1938 match, Louis knocked out Schmeling in the first round. The rivals later became fast friends. When Louis died in 1981, Schmeling helped pay for the funeral. Though lauded as an Aryan idol in Germany, Schmeling was neither political nor racist. How did he save two Jewish children from the Nazis? More…
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