The heroisism of Max Schmeling

Max's heroism in the ring has to be stressed here too...meaning of course, that amazingly brilliant strategic and tactical masterpiece of a fight when he ko'ed a young Joe Louis...the same Joe Louis who looked nothing short of magical vs Max Baer in just his previous fight. Max's courage, as well as his skill in carrying out his winning fight plan was nothing short of awesome.

 

I've always wondered if Max's heart was in the rematch with Louis, given the backdrop of Nazi Aryan supremacy propaganda. Schmeling would not wish to propagate this Social Darwinism myth for Hitler, I believe. Unable to avoid the fight, would he have truly wished to win it? I guess we'll never know.

 

The Reichssicherheitsamt story is total BS.....there were no so called death camps after he lost to Louis, that started in the 40's......until then they had the KZ's which housed mainly, Commies, Sozies, Pimps, *****s, Criminals and other socially unacceptable ***ually perverted to the regime.

Schmelling would never even get into the zipcode of the inner decision making SS.

The vast Germans including Schmelling were patriots and supported Hitlers astonishing rise up to approx 1942 and swayed after he started loosing the war. Afterwards of course everybody was "against" him, lol.

The irony was that Henry Ford, Jesse Owens , Lindbergh and many more were highly impressed and fond of the Nazis.

 

And Roosevelt was fond of Musolinni. FDR's New Deal was taken from Italian Fascism.

Are you sure about Jesse Owens? Hitler walked out of the Olympiastadion Berlin when Owens won a gold medal.

 

That is a myth. Hitler had a prior commitment so he wasn't able to oversea Owens medal ceremony. Jesse Owens said Hitler had talked to the competitors prior to the event and told the competitors he could not make the event. Owens said he was very nice and respectful. I found this out in John Toland's "Hitler."

 

People he saved, as in human beings,and the title of the thread is about Max's heroism ie his record as a human being, not his record as a fighter.Dont be so waspish old chap.

 

Decent is not an apt description for Schmeling. Denying Goebbels and Hitler to their face takes someone with extraordinary backbone.

He seems like an incredibly centered individual with a great sense of who he is and what is right. And humble about it, too!

 

Can you show any primary source that confirms Jesse Owens was impressed and fond of with the Nazi regime?

 

Even Churchill was impressed with Hitler early on. Success breeds admiration. But Schmeling didn't hide his neigbours kids or let camp-bounds Jews escape from a van because he agreed with Nazi-policy it seems to me.

 

I wrote "Jews", others had mentioned Jews before in this thread.

Is there any particular reason why you are telling me they were human beings ?

 

Very well documented since when ? Which primary evidence absolutely proves these stories ?

You're right he didn't seek exposure for it, but somebody went out of their way to bring these stories to light.
When did that happen ?
Certainly it seems that no one heard about it for decades after, when many were still calling Schmeling an old Nazi. No one came forward to defend him then.

If I sound sceptical, it's only because I'm well aware that 'old war stories' and the like, especially ones that surface decades later, are not the most reliable historical evidence.

 

What did he say to their faces ?

 

The account of Schmeling hiding the Jewish boys was told by one of the boys he hid.

"He [Schmeling] kept the Lewin boys, Henry and Werner, in his apartment at the Excelsior Hotel in Berlin, leaving word at the desk that he was ill and no one was to visit him. Later, when the rage of hate died down a little bit, did Schmeling help them flee the country to safety. They escaped and came to the United States where one of them, Henri Lewin, became a prominent hotel owner. This episode remained under shrouds until 1989, when Henry Lewin invited Schmeling to Las Vegas to thank him for saving his life. To this day, Henri Lewin believes that he and his brother owe their lives to Max Schmeling and he is convinced that Schmeling himself could have died for his humanitarian gesture."

http://www.auschwitz.dk/schmeling.htm

 

Fair enough, I think it's odd that he didn't mention it before 1989, especially if he was living in the US, where Schmeling was most portrayed as a Nazi.