Harry Stein (boxer)

Stein fought a German featherweight championship bout on March 1, 1928, against Eric Kohler losing in a fourth round disqualification at Ausstellungshalle, in Dresden. The exact nature of the foul that led to the disqualification is unknown. The fight was not officially considered a featherweight championship bout at the time because Stein was not within the featherweight limit at the weigh-in. Stein was forced to relinquish the title on March 17, however, when the German Boxing Federation (V.D.F.) ruled that because of the disqualification, Kohler would be adjudged the winner and take the German featherweight title. The ruling seems peculiar, since by current rules, if both boxers are not within the necessary weight class range at weigh in, no title can change hands.[4]

Frankie Genaro

Stein fought primarily in Paris, and Belgium, between May and December 1929, meeting quality opponents but no world champions, where he established an impressive record of 12 wins and 3 losses.[4]

He met the incomparable reigning World Flyweight champion, Italian-American Frankie Genaro in an eighth round no decision bout on February 26, 1930, at the Sportpalast, in Schoeneberg, Germany, which he won by disqualification. In the original decision, Genaro was disqualified for a low blow in the eighth round. The German Boxing Federation (V.D.F.), however, annulled the ruling five days later, believing the referee had acted too hastily and not according to V.D.F. rules. In theory, had the bout been for the world flyweight championship, Stein could have taken the crown with a knockout or decision win.[4]

On April 22, 1932, in one of his most important victories, Stein won the VDF National German Featherweight Championship in a fifth-round technical knockout against Paul Noack in Spichernsaele, Germany.[2]

He did not relinquish the German Featherweight title until March 3, 1933, in a seventh-round knockout loss to top German featherweight contender Hans Schiller.[2] Though little is known of any extenuating circumstances concerning his loss of the title, the Nazis had come to power in January of that year, only three months prior to the championship match. By July, 1933, the Maccabee organization, which had over 40,000 Jewish athletes using their athletic clubs in Stein's future home of Poland, had relocated its world headquarters from Berlin to London.[4]

Only months after relinquishing the German Featherweight Title, Stein was forced to flee Germany for Prague, Poland, to escape Nazi persecution in 1933, where he continued to box at least through 1937. Another top Jewish German boxer, Eric Seelig a German national middle and light heavyweight champion, had had his titles stripped by the Nazis, and had been forced to flee Germany the same year for France.[2] Stein fought a bout in Carracas, Venezuela, on April 22, 1933, which he lost in a fifth-round knockout. One of Stein's first fights in Poland was against Tomas Berlina at Lucerna Hall on December 12, 1933, in Prague, Poland where he fought a three-round exhibition no-decision bout. He fought at Prague's Lucerna Hall through 1934, but the frequency of his bouts, the quality of his competition, and his percentage of wins diminished after he was forced to flee Germany, possibly because of advancing age, his need to find other work, or because he had less time or resources to train.[4]

Stein appeared as himself in the 1930 film Liebe im Ring (Love in the Ring), along with the boxers Jose Santa, and handsome German heavyweight phenomenon Max Schmeling, in the lead role as a boxer.[5]

Up until his death, he trained Russian amateur boxers, likely in the area of Moscow, where he had fled by the 1940s. The exact date of his death is unknown, but it is believed to have been prior to 1948.[6]