I was doubtful about Schmeling until a few minutes ago. I knew that he had served in the Wehrmacht as a paratrooper and had dined with Hitler. Then I read this:

The fading memories of a living well-known German from the Nazi era, World Heavyweight Champion from 1930 to 1932, Max Schmeling, usually have it that he was a willing model for Adolf Hitler and The Third Reich, the self-proclaimed Aryan Superman. Schmeling may indeed have lunched with Hitler and had lengthy conversations with Goebbels, master propagandist of the Nazi regime, but his tale is far more complex than it first appears.

The story of Max Schmeling is the story of a hero, who during the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 1938, saved the lives of two young Jewish brothers named Lewin. A decent man in conflict with the Nazi regime and racial policies of Hitler's Third Reich - and a man who demonstrated extraordinary generosity, righteousness and humanitarianism. Yet Schmeling never once revealed his heroism.

The entire article is here; I recommend you read it.

He was a hero indeed and in deed; the world is the poorer for his passing.