Holocaust & Humanity Center Breaks Ground on New Home at Union Terminal

Steve Boymel was not quite 3 years old the day in May 1949 when his parents walked him through Union Terminal’s concourse as they arrived in Cincinnati. The family of Russian Jews had been fleeing the horrors of the Nazis since 1942 and the aftermath of that devastation for years afterward.

Today, Boymel, now a board member of Cincinnati’s Holocaust & Humanity Center, stood in the same building to take part in a new journey — the groundbreaking for the HHC’s new home.

It’s a fitting destination for a center that works to keep the lessons of the Holocaust alive while celebrating the deep resilience of the human spirit, Boymel says.

“That walk was the beginning of a new life,” he said of his first steps in Cincinnati through the train station. At the time, his mother and father had just one suitcase and $7 to their name — the latter given to them by two sailors when the family got off a boat New York City because they were taken by Boymel’s smile.

Read more: https://www.citybeat.com/news/blog/21012201/holocaust-humanity-center-breaks-ground-on-new-home-at-union-terminal