His legacy defies Nazi propaganda  Max Schmeling, whose fights
against Joe Louis helped build and debunk the myth of Aryan
supremacy, is dead at 99.  By wire services Published February
5, 2005  Max Schmeling is dead.  There was a time when those
four words likely would have set off spasms of grand celebration
in the United States and around the world, because the hatred
for what Mr. Schmeling was assumed to be by so many ran so deep.
Hitler portrayed him as an Aryan Superman after he knocked out
Joe Louis in 1936, but there was another side to Mr. Schmeling.
Mr. Schmeling, who was badly defeated in a politically charged
rematch on the eve of World War II, once hid two Jewish boys in
his apartment from marauding Nazis and later reportedly helped
some Jewish friends escape death camps.  He said he feared only
one thing in a long life that ended Wednesday at the age of 99.
"I don't want anyone to say I was a good athlete, but worth
nothing as a human being - I couldn't bear that," Mr. Schmeling
said in 1993.