Mendel fled Nazi Germany to become meat-packing mogul, patron of the arts
Fred Mendel is, and probably always will be, best-known for the art gallery that bore his name, a gorgeous riverside building that anchored Saskatoon’s arts community for more than 50 years.
But Mendel was much more than a wealthy patron who lent his name to a local landmark.
Born in Germany’s Ruhr Valley in 1888, Mendel grew up in the meat business. He inherited an abattoir in 1912, which he operated with great success until Adolf Hitler’s Nazis made life in Europe all but impossible for a cultured Jewish family.
According to a 2009 article in the Saskatoon Sun, Mendel counted 16 occasions on which the Nazis might have killed him and one in which he came face-to-face with Hitler.
In 1940, a year after fleeing Europe, Mendel opened a meat-packing plant in Saskatoon. Because it was linked with a similar operation in Australia, he named it Intercontinental Packers Ltd.
Until 1945, meat packed in his Saskatchewan plant helped feed Britain’s war effort. The company proved successful, eventually expanding to Regina, Red Deer and Vancouver to become one of the country’s biggest meat packers.
In 1971, Mendel became the first Saskatchewan resident to receive the Canadian Industrial Development Award.
Three years later, he was named to the Order of Canada.
Mendel’s legacies lived on for many years after his death in 1976: Intercontinental survived under various names until about a decade ago, and the Mendel Art Gallery was open until 2015.