Max Schmeling

Pomeranian (in northeast Germany) boxer Max Schmeling, a fair, courageous gentleman, becomes world champion and a national hero in the early 1930s, winning the hand of singer Anny Ondra. Just for losing against a younger, fitter colored American Joe Louis, the Nazi regime lifts Max's privileges and sends him to the front, hoping he'll be killed in action. Yet he survives the conquest of Crete and by freeing a British prisoner unwittingly saves his own skin when after the Soviet conquest of his home region, Max is nearly taken as a POW. He starts all over, although rather too old, with remarkable results.