Toronto Star

Pubdate:December 18, 1999

Page: A27

Section:NEWS

Edition:MET

Length:567

Robert Engel helped Star's Santa Claus Fund Holocaust survivor was a volunteer with a big heart

Byline/Source: By Alan Barnes Toronto Star

Photo Caption: STAR photo (Boris Spremo, CM): SANTA'S HELPER: Robert Engel organized the Boy Scouts' distribution of gift boxes for needy children from the Star's Santa Claus Fund.

  Robert (Robbie) Engel didn't celebrate Christmas, but he was a
driving force behind the success of The Toronto Star's Santa
Claus Fund.
  A volunteer with Scouts Canada, he stepped in to help 14 years
ago when the fund's distribution system broke down. He started
small, organizing one troop of Boy Scouts to deliver several
hundred gift boxes from a mini-depot at the Jewish Community
Centre.
  This season - for the second year in a row - numerous Toronto
scout troops are distributing 20,000 gift boxes, half the total
number of boxes the fund sends to needy children in time for
Christmas.
  "We feel that without Robbie's help, the Scout delivery
program couldn't have come together," said Betty Anne Hillman,
manager of the fund's warehouse.
  "All of Santa's elves at the warehouse love him and will miss
him terribly."
  Mr. Engel died of cancer Thursday at North York General
Hospital. The retired fashion business salesman was 76.
  A Holocaust survivor, he often said that the fact he was
Jewish and didn't observe Christmas made no difference to him.
He wanted to make children happy.
  "We call it a mitzvah," he said in a 1996 interview with The
Star, using the Hebrew word for a good deed. "My reward is
seeing the children's eyes light up."
  "Robbie was a truly remarkable man," said Rose Cudney,
executive director of the Santa Fund, who has been calling on
him for assistance since they met 14 years ago.
  "We'll miss his tremendous energy, his caring nature and his
drive to help the less fortunate, especially children."
  Cudney said she would shake her head "in amazement at the man
who had survived so much cruelty, yet had such a generous
heart."
  Born in Berlin, Mr. Engel fled to Amsterdam at age 15, just
before the start of World War II.
  He joined the Jewish underground there but was picked up by
the Nazis and detained at Westerbork, the largest concentration
camp in the Netherlands during the German occupation.
  Mr. Engel was liberated at the war's end in 1945 by Canadian
soldiers.
  His face as a young man appears on a Canada Post stamp issued
in 1995 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the
Nazi genocide.
  In 1998, he was one of 50 Holocaust survivors recognized by
Parliament for their contributions to Canada.
  He was a chairperson of the Holocaust Remembrance Committee of
the Toronto Jewish Congress.
  Mr. Engel was a Scouting volunteer in Canada for many years,
receiving his 40-year pin in 1995, said John Plumadore, Scouts
Canada's executive director for Greater Toronto.
  He had many roles in scouting and received several awards for
his service to the movement. Mr. Engel said the Scouts learn
valuable lessons about the spirit of giving by helping the Star
Santa Fund.
  "They (learn) that they are part of the community and not all
the community is as privileged as they are," he said.
  "Delivering the packages is a way of beginning to share with
people who have less."
  Plumadore said Mr. Engel was "full of energy and enthusiasm.
He had a great love for scouting and was tireless in that role."
  He leaves wife Margo; daughters Renee Jenkins and Evelyn
Stieber; grandchildren Lee, Tamara and Deborah and sister Bella
Eton.
  The funeral is at 12:30 p.m. tomorrow at Benjamin's Park
Memorial Chapel, 2401 Steeles Ave. W., one light west of
Dufferin St.
 

obituary Robert Engel