Graduating NJIT senior Danielle Grunwald and her employer as of this summer are made for each other — Grunwald loves digging into life sciences data to extract useful insights Grunwald is wrapping up her studies with a B.S in data science from Ying Wu College of Computing She was also an Albert Dorman Honors College scholar the only female member of the NJIT bowling team (personal high score 268) active with the Nucleus yearbook and an event coordinator for the Student Activities Council I knew that this is where I wanted to be,” said Grunwald I've always been interested in mathematics I would have a placemat and I would do the times tables.” But entering Wall Township’s Business and Finance Academy Grunwald wanted to study business or journalism She wound up helping start a computer science club and took difficult courses such as statistics she had a life-changing experience when side effects from undocumented concussions She discovered that the same mindset used in finance and news reporting translates well into data science and the tenacity for investigating physiology “I realized I wanted to find that middle ground between statistics and computer science I [also] loved that NJIT was also an R1 institute so I knew that I could come here and do research.” “I really like that people appreciate just how flexible it is I need to find a solution to a problem,’ … Being able to actually understand why certain data is doing what it's doing You can find the answers to a lot of those problems And I think that that's something that's really interesting.” along with mentoring from her favorite computing faculty — including professor James Geller senior university lecturer Pantelis Monogioudis and assistant professor Margarita Vinnikov — readied Grunwald for a data science career beginning when she landed a summer 2024 internship at Axtria Her primary assignment was to build a custom AI language model trained on the company’s existing library of written documents so employees could quickly assemble new documents that would use their own facts and style She’ll continue some of that work as an employee starting in late July but will also have an expanded role as an analyst assisting Axtria’s clients in evaluating their own data that could lead to new answers for any manner of complicated life sciences problems Grunwald also does her own research on memory loss which she personally experienced from her injuries She wanted to discover how AI can be used for early detection of dementia cases using the data modeling skills she learned in class “I really love finding the answers to complex data sets … You're essentially putting pieces of the puzzle together to create the overall picture and message that you need from that modeling and analytics So I really love working with machine learning and with Axtria so far it's exactly what I've been able to do.” Grunwald’s advice to new students is to keep pushing even if you initially fail at something whether it was successful or maybe it wasn't as successful I've seen that everything you do here and outside of NJIT is a learning moment,” she said “Put your foot in the door to any opportunity you may be interested in You never know where it will take you or what could happen NJIT is a great environment to take chances outside of your comfort zone.” “She was one of my top students in Introduction to Generative AI and continues to brighten my day when I run into her on campus In the classroom I was struck by the depth of the questions that she was asking It was clear that she was thinking deeply about what she was learning,” Hoover stated “She oozes confidence in her quest to satisfy her own curiosity and reminds me a bit of how Feynman wrote about the joy in figuring out how things work I would assume many researchers feel this joy I am positive that Danielle will be successful in any career that she chooses.” Two Disciplines, One Vision: Imani Ihmaid's Story at NJIT Acewin Tam's Architectural Vision: Bridging Design, Community and Social Change where he most recently served as the editor-in-chief of Delano.lu he was a senior journalist covering finance He previously worked in PR in Silicon Valley and for an NGO in China Aaron likes working as a journalist because he has the chance to learn something new every day and ask interesting people plenty of questions Interest areas: The human element in the financial sector and the role the financial ecosystem plays in Luxembourg’s and Europe’s economy and social fabric; the property market; and making industry jargon and figures comprehensible for non-experts Linkedin:linkedin.com/in/aarongrunwald/ Bluesky:bsky.app/profile/grunwaldaaron.bsky.social Deutsche BankPremiumLuxembourg bank CEO outlines optimistic growth plansDeutsche Bank Luxembourg faces economic “headwinds” but is counting on European “tailwinds” to expand its business People movesFrançoise Schlink named Post Group chairLuxembourg’s cabinet has formally approved Françoise Schlink’s nomination as chair of Post Group Public safetyLuxembourg police force expands with fresh crop of traineesMore than 180 cadets have started police officer training this week as the force’s recruitment drive steps up NextGenerationEUBrussels signals approval for €58m of extra Luxembourg fundingLuxembourg likely to receive fresh EU funds for worker training housing improvements and digitalisation of public services Fund sectorLuxembourg asset servicers struggling with digital transition says studyManual processes remain prevalent and digital projects are underfunded in the asset servicing space Social indicatorsOne in five Luxembourg residents at risk of poverty says Eurostat20% of Luxembourg residents faced financial hardships in 2024 ExplainerWho gets to benefit from wage indexation and what is included A closer look at some of the people and benefits included in the automatic 2.5% increase triggered by inflation OutlookNumber of skilled tradespeople shrunk in 2024Going against the trajectory set over the past five decades the number of jobs in the trades sector fell last year European Court of AuditorsEU Chips Act ‘very unlikely’ to reach targets says watchdogThe European Commission needs to “urgently carry out a reality check” on the EU Chips Act the European Court of Auditors has recommended Annual resultsPremiumDeutsche Bank Luxembourg revenue up but profits fell in 2024Lender boosted reserves to cover potential bad loans annual report shows Share this with instagramShare this with facebookShare this with linkedinSections Rain showers early with overcast skies late Joan Hensel Grunwald Albany - Joan Hensel Grunwald 2025 at home surrounded by her loving family she was the daughter of the late Francis and Erma (Brierton) Quinn Joan was raised in Delmar and attended Bethlehem Central Schools Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: Account processing issue - the email address may already exist Have the latest food and drink articles delivered to your inbox every Thursday Have the latest local news delivered every afternoon so you don't miss out on updates Sign up today to receive email newsletters of local daily obituaries Get the Register Star and Daily Mail E-edition delivered directly to your inbox Have the latest local news delivered every morning so you don't miss out on updates Invalid password or account does not exist Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application at the Summit House Assisted Living in Britt  A memorial mass will be held at 11 a.m. Boniface Catholic Church in Garner with Rev A flag presentation ceremony will be conducted by the Garner Veterans Ceremonial Unit Inurnment will be in the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery in Preston To view his service please click the following link:  Dick Grunwald Memorial Service   Visitation will be held one hour prior to services at the church on Saturday.  memorials may be directed to the Wounded Warrior Project He graduated from Albert Lea High School in 1946 and attended Dunwoody College of Technology in Minneapolis Dick worked at an architectural firm in Forest City from 1949-50 before being deployed to Korea in the US Army where he served in the Artillery from 1950-52 They relocated to Mason City where he worked for a stone business and they welcomed their first child They moved to Clear Lake where their children where he worked for Babcock Stone Company in Kasota Dick also drew dozens of house plans throughout his career Dick and Virgie built their final home in Garner in 1995 and spending time with his children and grandchildren  He was preceded in death by his parents; loving wife Enter your phone number above to have directions sent via text This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors a former photo librarian for BloodHorse for about 10 years the daughter of Blanche Cozatt Hocker Faucette and Chesley Horton Faucette She was a graduate of Atherton High School and received a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from the University of Kentucky where she was house president of Alpha Delta Pi sorority and made many lifelong friends After graduation she was a copy writer for WVLK radio station and then secretary at Sayre School She married Tom Grunwald and they were married 53 years until his death in 2017 They enjoyed traveling together and chaperoning students to Wyoming For years she owned Green Forest Antiques and in 1998 became the photo librarian at BloodHorse Her assistance with photo research was vital for the BloodHorse editorial department and the company's former book division Eclipse Press before the age of digital image archives She also was remembered as a protective gatekeeper of the company's extensive photo collection Sign up for BloodHorse Daily "Judy was an invaluable member of the editorial staff as the photo librarian," said Anne Eberhardt Keogh She made equine photo research projects a historical adventure." Grunwald was preceded in death by her parents and infant brother Samuel Bailey Forsyth Faucette She is survived by her two sons Matthew Weber (Julie) and Andrew Forsyth (Jane); her grandchildren Maxwell Moritz In lieu of flowers please consider a gift to St Sayre School Hocker-Faucette Fund or Thomas A Grunwald Scholarship Fund or another charity of choice This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page She graduated from Greenville High School in 1972 and then earned her master’s in library science with an English minor from North Texas State University in 1977 She later worked at E-Systems/ Raytheon/L3 from 19982014 Becky moved back to the family homestead in Greenville with the girls in 1998 She was always making conversation with people everywhere she went along with their significant others; six grandchildren Leatherwood and Ethel (Eckles) and Joseph H memorials may be made to Lakes Regional MHMR Hunt County CASA or Hunt County Behavioral Health Team www.hcbhlt.org Arrangements by Coker- Mathews Funeral Home Chapel in Greenville © 2025 Burleson County Tribune Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker At the recent FAI General Aviation Commission (GAC) Annual Meeting Delegates elected a new President to lead the Commission into its next chapter who succeeds Hans Schwebel following his decision to step down Ralf brings a wealth of experience to the presidency His career began as an avionics technician for a German regional airline followed by a role at Bombardier Aviation Services he oversees projects and IT at a service centre in Berlin combining technical expertise with a strategic outlook and the path that led to him becoming President: Can you tell us about your journey in air sports I have been flying gliders since I was 13, later also touring motor gliders and Single Engine Piston (SEP) aircraft. In 2006, I was elected as the German Aero Club (DAeC) Sports Representative for Precision Flying I have also been attending GAC Annual Meetings since 2006 I was a DAeC National Representative on the Precision Flying Subcommittee and was elected as GNSS Technical Advisor in 2011 What inspired you to take on the role of President of the FAI General Aviation Commission Thanks to my many years in the GAC and especially in the last few years as Vice President I already have a thorough understanding of the work and the tasks involved played an incredibly important role in me standing for election and I would like to take this opportunity to thank him once again for his support How does your professional background equip you for this role and how do you plan to apply your experience to your presidency My knowledge of aviation comes from both a professional and a sporting perspective my current job as a project manager gives me a lot of skills to work in a structured and successful way which will definitely be useful in the work of the Bureau My affinity for IT should be helpful for digitalisation What are your main priorities as the new President I would like to encourage the GAC Bureau and all Subcommittee Chairpersons to commit to our new goals as quickly as possible We have already held regular Zoom meetings for coordination purposes so we will continue to expand the use of this tool I will hold 1-to-1 discussions with them very soon and share my ideas and vision in person People all over the world are talking about Industry 4.0 and digitalisation We are still sending PDF documents back and forth between us instead of relying on new technologies I would like to accept this support and drive GAC forward in the direction of digitalisation and modern processes What are the biggest challenges currently facing GAC GAC must continue to work hard to attract applicants to host FAI Category 1 or 2 events in the coming years The lead time for decision and voting needs to be longer Competitions are always an incentive for young (and less young) pilots to improve their skills and performance This applies to national competitions as well as FAI World Championships we can demonstrate the current level of performance of our pilots GAC is one of the most active Commissions in terms of records How do you see the role of record-setting in promoting innovation and progress in General Aviation I believe that the role of records has been underestimated in the past I see great potential to make performance measurable and presentable I have records in mind that also make efficiency and environmental friendliness measurable With GAC Records Subcommittee Chair Art Greenfield the Commission has one of the most competent FAI Officials for this Sustainability and efficiency are becoming increasingly important in air sports What role do you see GAC playing in this area and what initiatives would you like to pursue I see a lot of possibilities with new record categories There is no question that General Aviation will be measured by its environmental impact in the future We just have to learn to present and communicate these successes Do you have a favourite flying experience or memorable moment in your air sports career I still clearly remember the day I flew my first Air Navigation Race (ANR) competition The concept of this sport had already convinced me beforehand but the fun and inner fulfillment at the end of the flight showed once again how much potential there is in this sport FAI - Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Design by Penceo - LAB we split this apart and looked into if the type of progression would occur differently depending on the organ sites What we have seen is maintained benefits for the combination of lenvatinib and pembrolizumab vs sunitinib,” says Viktor Grünwald In this video, Viktor Grünwald, MD, PhD, highlights the background and key findings from the abstract, “Lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab (L+P) vs sunitinib (S) in advanced renal cell carcinoma (aRCC): Patterns of progression and subsequent therapy in the CLEAR trial. Abstract #4524,” which was presented at the 2024 American Society for Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago Grünwald is a professor for Interdisciplinary Genitourinary Oncology at the University Hospital Essen in Essen Could you recap the previously reported findings from this analysis of the CLEAR study (NCT02811861) The CLEAR study investigated the use of lenvatinib and pembrolizumab vs sunitinib in the first-line setting of kidney cancer patients We did a couple of subgroup analyses in order to learn what are the groups of patients that benefit most And what is the clinical pattern that helps guiding the choice when you make your clinical decision and that process we looked into response by organ size because when you sit in front of a patient you consider an individual patient vs the overall trial results We figured when you know the type of tumor shrinkage that occurs in different organs you will learn more and you have a better understanding that specific patients really would be benefiting most The second part that we also analyzed was looking into whether the tumor burden at start of therapy would influence the outcome but we have seen that if you have a higher tumor burden len/pem performed quite well irrespective of the tumor burden I think overall it was quite reassuring of the use of len/pem What were the findings presented at ASCO 2024 what we did this time was really looking into the different types of progression because we investigated the different organ sites only those lesions that were treated there and counted only those progressions that occurred in the different organ sites What we have seen is maintained benefits for the combination of lenvatinib and pembrolizumab vs sunitinib This transcription has been edited for clarity AUA 2025 recap: Urologic oncology trials in progress Pearls & Perspectives: Expanding BPH care & patient choice, with Kevin Zorn, MD, at AUA 25 TAR-200 elicits high complete response rate in BCG-unresponsive NMIBC Pearls & Perspectives: Future of reconstructive urology, with Ryan Terlecki, MD, at AUA 2025 TAR-200 boasts impressive DFS rates in papillary disease-only NMIBC Ultra-low PSA responses are more prevalent with darolutamide plus ADT 609-716-7777 you're using an old version of your browser so some of the features on this page may not be displaying properly This ESMO Webinar is available to all healthcare professionals working in Oncology You will need to log in with your ESMO membership or free ESMO Account and click on the registration button Access to the webinar will be open 30 min before the session starts Please set up your ESMO Account now to register for this ESMO Webinar Live viewers of the webinar will be awarded a certificate of attendance and 1 ESMO-MORA category 1 point It is with great pleasure that I invite you to participate in this ESMO Webinar on the topic of Advanced Urothelial Cancer The webinar will start with a short welcome and introduction followed by a presentation of a clinical case displaying localised bladder cancer with an overview of epidemiology and practice patterns We will then listen to a presentation on state of the art 1st line therapy options for patients with advanced urothelial cancer followed by a lecture on 2nd and later line therapies Our last lecture will focus on managing toxicities and optimising tolerability of novel treatment regimens for patients We will end the webinar with a live Q&A and discussion and I invite you to send in all your questions to the panel during the event I am delighted to announce the distinguished speakers who will join me in this webinar and I encourage and invite you to register and join us all in this new ESMO activity The supporter has had no control or influence over the content of this webinar Please visit out meeting resources section for this event videos and additional material available for members ESMO Guidelines: Real World Cases - Webinar Series eUpdate – Advanced Urothelial Carcinoma Treatment Recommendations Login to your ESMO account to sign up for ESMO newsletters and receive information about ESMO's scientific and educational resources ESMO is a Swiss-registered not-for-profit organisation All funding for this site is provided directly by ESMO 6900 Lugano - CH© Copyright 2025 European Society for Medical Oncology All rights reserved worldwide while others help us improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used For more detailed information on the cookies we use, please check our Privacy Policy Necessary cookies enable core functionality The website cannot function properly without these cookies and you can only disable them by changing your browser preferences a retired museum curator will give a lecture at Bridgewater College about one Jewish family's experience during World War II Vilma Grunwald … wrote literally minutes before she was taken to the gas chambers And she wrote this letter and sent it to her husband who was a physician in the camp and you get a sense of what was going through her head as she knew she was facing the abyss The other two documents are a diary written by a child survivor who was imprisoned with Frank that was transcribed by an American liberator COHEN: And through it we get a sense of what the father was thinking Vilma and her older son John were murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp the fewer survivors there are left to hear from firsthand COHEN: I feel it's really important to keep a tangible proof of people's lives not just as victims but as people who led full and wonderful lives until this catastrophe hit them January 27th in Cole Hall at Bridgewater College The event is sponsored by the Kline Bowman Institute for Peace and Justice drawing you in with his captivating charm and infectious brand of blues returning to the newly renovated Indi Bar stage at the Indian Ocean Hotel in Scarborough a year on and Ash has only continued to best himself It was a year ago when I first saw Ash play a sold out show on stage at the Milkbar and wrote my first review blown away by the raw talent and energy that I saw Tonight was serendipitous and almost to the day to see him play again He brought along incredibly talented friends Beth Chia and Charlie Youngson to open the night The crowd was treated to a musically delicious dinner for the ears in both of the supports with all the depth that an endless bottom of water holds He continues to draw from his life and the world around him to shape his music They couldn’t get enough and ate up every bite of the dish that Ash served Commentary provided by Ash throughout the night touched on the relatable contrasts of a difficult work life balance: being away from his family while being a professional musician having to be on the road while doing everything he does for his children It made his songs hit home all the more harder with each note Ash had great crowd engagement right from the get-go with the crowd responding to his presence as though they were welcoming an old friend back that they hadn’t seen in a while he is a master of his instruments and his instruments are extensions of his hands and his very being He continuously showed the audience why he is still a blues master as he rotated through his guitars bells and loop pedals to deliver a performance of epic proportions throughout his set His cheeky personality came through as he improvised his way through getting a guitar tech up on stage to switch his leads around mid-opening songs He spoke about being both sad and excited to play the last ever Blues fest happening soon in the same sence that Johnny Farnham did his last tour The crowd gave that energy right back to Ash on stage with clap alongs and sing alongs that had everyone in the packed Indi Bar band room whopping with cheers of delight fast paced rhythm and ability to capture a crowd and take them along on his musical journey was an absolute pleasure to witness With thanks to Danni & Ash for the media accreditation LIVE REVIEW: The WE WILL ROCK YOU Experience ENVY MARSHALL Release New Single ‘Like A Man’ ‘Music is a Lighthouse’ – Devin Townsend The Devin Townsend show in Western Australia opened to a full house at Fremantle’s premier international live music venue, Metropolis last Wednesday. Promoter, Brad Wesson could not have […] What do you get when you combine two of this country’s finest singers, lock them into some of Australia’s top class venues and then to top it off, add a collection of supreme musicians into […]   Ash Grunwald has got his ‘Mojo’ well and truly back with his ninth studio album released on 30th August, through Bloodlines.  Grunwald has pulled together a host of guest musicians from the blues & […] Recently, a paper by statistics researcher Peter Grünwald (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica/Universiteit Leiden) entitled “Beyond Neyman-Pearson: E-values enable hypothesis testing with a data-driven alpha” was published in the prestigious scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of date 20 September 2024 It was already known that e-values are more flexible than p-values: with e-values you can stop an experiment earlier than originally planned or Grünwald shows that e-values are also more flexible in another way: with e-values it is possible to determine the significance level at a later time than usual Whether experimental results are significant and not due to chance is traditionally determined using p-values and the significance level This methodology was largely developed in the 1930s by Neyman and Pearson p-values and related confidence intervals - error bars around graphs that were widely used by the RIVM during the COVID pandemic - have come under increasing scrutiny P-values are extremely difficult to interpret This is one of the reasons for the “replication crisis”: there are far more false positive results in applied science than one would hope or expect The idea of Neyman-Pearson statistics with p-values is that you determine a signficance level in advance If it is then smaller than your significance level you conclude that you have presumably found something 'significant' (e.g the probability of a false positive (you say “there is a connection/the drug works/it is not a coincidence” when this is not the case) is smaller than the significance level 5% the stronger the evidence that there is really something going on you are not allowed to adjust the significance level at a later stage If you see a p-value of 0.01 instead of 0.05 you are inclined to think: now the probability of error is only 1% The significance level cannot be adjusted retrospectively What an observation like 'it turned out that p < 0.01 but the sifnificance level was 0.05' means exactly is almost impossible to explain in practice and psychologists) tend to explain a small p simply as a small probability of a false positive and even professional statisticians unfortunately sometimes make similar mistakes Grünwald provides a mathematical proof that shows that if you work with e-values instead of p-values adjusting the p-value is indeed possible: you may change the significance level in a later stage of the research project Through previously published research by Grünwald and colleagues it was already clear that with the e-value -in contrast to the p-value- you may adjust the number of participants in your study: you may stop when you want and add data as long as you want So now it also becomes clear that e-values are more flexible in yet another way than p-values and confidence intervals: the significance level may also be determined retrospectively The confusion between p-value and significance level is perhaps the main reason why p-values are so difficult to understand – and this is what makes Grunwald's discovery revolutionary He shows that this problem is largely eliminated with the e-value senior researcher in CWI's Machine Learning research group was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant to further research flexible statistical methods based on the e-value a robust and flexible alternative to the p-value Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) is the national research institute for mathematics and computer science in the Netherlands CWI is part of NWO-I, the institutes organization of NWO. We use cookies. You can read more about this in our cookie statement Global tech and media companies turn to me for antitrust and regulatory guidance when expanding their businesses in Germany and the EU Leading Individual for Media Competition Law There are currently no upcoming/recent events Thanks for visiting The use of software that blocks ads hinders our ability to serve you the content you came here to enjoy We ask that you consider turning off your ad blocker so we can deliver you the best experience possible while you are here Live Cast She was preceded in death by her daughter please make donations to the Alzheimer’s Association or an animal rescue organization such as Greyhound Companions or the Humane Society To view a live broadcast of the Memorial Service please visit www.heafeyheafey.com and click the “Live Cast” button at the top of the home page I new Pat when she and Rich and the girls lived in St Pat was a very sweet person and always had a smile for us She was like a second mom to me and taught me so much including how to put on makeup Heafey-Hoffmann-Dworak-Cutler Mortuaries © 2024 All Rights Reserved Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Michael Grunwald is a bestselling author and a former staff writer for The Washington Post He has won the George Polk Award for national reporting the Worth Bingham Prize for investigative reporting His forthcoming book, ​“We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate,” includes some reporting that first appeared in Canary about topics ranging from Brazilian cattle ranches to chemical-free fertilizer to lab-grown meat.  a former lawyer who is now a mind-body-spirit healer Receive emails when new obituariesare published to our website you can trust the funeral directors at Lewin Funeral Home to help you celebrate your loved one’s life Our staff has experience planning a variety of funeral services and can assist your family in honoring your loved one no matter your personal preference We pride ourselves on serving the Fremont community and surrounding areas with compassion Lewin Funeral Home is dedicated to providing personalized Our goal is to lessen the burden on your family so that you can focus on celebrating your loved one's life and beginning your grief journey.Hear what other families have said about our services and get to know our experienced staff We're here to help you create a service thats unique to you or your loved one Making arrangements beforehand gives you time to consider all of your options it can be difficult to know how to cope with the loss See what families have to say about our services Lewin Funeral HomePhone: (920) 446-2288210 W © Lewin Funeral HomeSupported by SRS Computing and TA Your browser may not work with certain site. Upgrade now. Building A Safer Future: Transforming roofing cladding & insulation industries through industry-wide standards & competence training this is an interview with Neville Grunwald who is the director of roofing and facades for Wates and also the head of the Joint Competence Initiative a very important part of the industry’s response post Grenfell has been to instigate the demonstration of competence for tradespeople involved in roofing and facades projects that’s what we’ll be talking about this morning So, to get us started Neville, I wonder if you can tell everyone what the Joint Competence Initiative is and what it’s trying to achieve The JCI – the Joint Competency Initiative for the building envelope sector I realised that we’ve got problems with some of our installations and I started examining what was going wrong and we realised that we were lacking competence – not of the installer Everything from the people that are helping to specify the product when we’re in tender There are plenty of competent companies out there We’re now a business of slightly over 6,000 people – Wates – and trying to get everybody up to the same level the high watermark that you’d hope that we’re going to be I started looking at it and I ended up getting involved with the Dame Judith Hackitt Working Group and it became obvious that we’d got a similar viewpoint to them And I sat through God knows how many meetings lots of talking shops with the Building Regulator with various organisations and trade bodies what we need is a competence framework” or “the framework’s okay but what specifically do I have to do as an estimator for a roofer?” we set up the JCI to actually write those standards because nobody else was prepared to And we brought together the likes of the NFRC the MCRMA – all these trade bodies and a lot of other stakeholders from subcontractor specialists through to distributors what do we think these standards look like?” Let’s get it down on a piece of paper let’s make them appropriate and easy to understand and give people a direction to aim for and let them understand what training they might need to get them to those levels One thing that worries me is we have a paucity most of the industry looks like me – male We need a lot of young people coming in of both sexes if you join the industry and you want to do it on purpose rather than by accident like I did 37 years ago those standards – if we set them now and we say “If you do that that gets you as a base estimator or an estimating manager or a commercial manager.” It gives you a professional route to grow your career as well There are just so many varieties of roofing – whether it’s single ply or whatever it is – that must be difficult to set standards for all those different specialisms So what we’ve actually done is we’ve joined the joined the JCI she’s set up 12 working groups originally to look at competence in the industry The JCI has now become one of the working groups So we’re working together to set standards for ESLG10.1 We’re actually setting standards for installation for all of those types of roofing materials you’re talking about – and hard metals and lead – to make sure that we’ve got somebody looking at the specific standards for each of those because they’re all slightly different And if we’ve got something like 120 people working on this right now across installation it’s taking hundreds and hundreds of people We’re also getting assistance from CITB from the regulator – so it’s a massive undertaking We think there’s going to be something like 150 to 200 standards and it will tell you what that standard should be And it won’t matter whether you’re doing hot melt whether you’re doing single ply membrane Where will people be able to find out what’s applicable to them That’s a question I’ve been asking the regulator for the last three years we think that that should be the second place you look We’re trying to encourage government to have a central website which they are talking about with Skills England now where you would be able to go and say “Right I want to go and learn about construction” regardless of whether I’m doing concrete brickwork or whether I’m doing a roof You’d be surprised just how far behind industry the regulator and the Industry Competence Steering Group We’re hoping to have the standards out – 100 by the end of next year Bearing in mind that the Building Safety Act said we should all be able to prove competence by October last year I think it was the white paper on achieving competence which set the target of 80% of staff by next year But I don’t think it’s even been started really we’ve got some standards that are actually giving you a benchmark for the management of each of the departments I’d expect to have these many hours of CPD.” I’ve got a lot of commercial staff at Wates you could end up as a designer” and they say “Oh for this roof – that one gets me a BRooft4 that one doesn’t; who’s at fault– who’s done the design if you chose a subcontractor that says we’re going to use the flammable material instead of non-flammable we’re trying to make sure that their management levels are actually able to look down on them The one thing that I think we’ve got to do as an industry right now is work more closely right down to manufacturer – to look out for each other because we’re in a situation at the minute where none of us can prove competence readily Architects can because they’re RIBA approved and there’s the ARB They’ve got to prove their competence so often But unless you’re in a chartered position or a protected occupation those standards aren’t there – they never have been So we’re having to work harder to enhance our skills because our skills are not infinite I always say your brains are like a piggy bank you can hold £100 worth of information in your head You can either have £100 pounds on one product or a pound on each but at some point the piggy bank is full and you can’t take any more on we need other people in the room that are working actively with us to make sure that none of us ever get the wrong side of building regs so we’re not building incorrectly That’s as important as actually having your competence I’m often asked about passing fire protection So I look at a building and we’re looking at cavity barriers and firestops and fire breaks across rooms; and I’ll look at the details and I’ll go but I’m not a certified fire engineer There may be something that I’m not spotting We’re going to get the fire engineer to review what I’ve put together with you as a project team I’m supposed to be the pinnacle in Wates when it comes to facades and roofs And they go “What do you mean you don’t know?” that’s the bravest and most sensible thing you can do And I’m trying to encourage my team that work with me to do the same We need to get somebody outside this room to tell us” you don’t know everything – and be brave enough to say that because your boss isn’t always going to want to hear that is what stage of a project would you be expecting competence to become At what stage will people have to demonstrate the competence of their construction team the principal contractor and the principal design have to prove their competence before they can be engaged in the scheme even at an invitation to tender we’re often asked “prove your competence” before we even get into the stage one tender And is that part of CHAS or any of the pre quals Have they taken on board the need to demonstrate competence yet There’s an organisational competence which Build UK have just updated the common assessment standard for We’re actually running the beta of that right now which will allow you to complete your CHAS or your Constructionline Gold That will allow you to prove your organisational competence Most companies – I think most people are representing companies here -their businesses will be on to prove their competence quite easily as an organisation Individual competence – that’s where we start getting the difficulty So would organisational competence encompass the individual competence of their teams So what we’re doing is when we go out to tender “Are you organisationally competent?” “Yes” “Have you got people that have done this kind of work before?” “Yes” We put the contracted proposals together with the tenderers because each roofing or façade company will have a slightly different house style one will want to use a GRP edging to the roof; others will want to use an aluminium coping; some will want to use panels on the back of the upstand; some will want to use felt we’ve got to be fairly sure – and we’ll be interviewing during tender the subcontractors to make sure they’ve got the right competencies It might be that we need to get an external consultant to do a little bit of extra checking on structural calculations or on design details So that conversation is now happening at tender before we even start thinking about employing them So are you interested in the competence of the subcontractors who’re going to be actually installing The industry needs to know about the estimator – do they know what they’re putting forward we’ll put some structure in here and we might have some seals there” and right that’s cool but what we don’t want to do is find out we’ve nailed our colours to the wrong mast I then want to know that the designers are designing correctly I then want to know that the procurement people are procuring correctly it’s very easy with some of the amalgamation certificates but I have point two dozen of these types of certificates on my machine where we’ve got the certificates that says it’s class A2 reaction to fire and when you look at the fire certificate behind it that this amalgamation organisation has used we want to make sure the procurer for the subcontractor understands that kind of level of nuance because it’s also a learning experience for you and for me – you as the subcontractor to make sure -again – that we’re getting right under its skin We can use that material again and again and again we can either put it aside and not use it or we can actually investigate why is it not right we’re actually talking about the lead designers we’re particularly interested in the lead procurer we’re particularly interested in Because if we don’t get it right at the start with the best trained installers in the world Because if we give them the wrong products and it is very common to put together a gang of roofers for a particular project and the people within that gang – the individuals – could change day-to-day if you as a main contractor have assured yourself that the people that are being employed on site to deliver your project are competent today how are you going to make sure that that is the case tomorrow So the Building Safety Act says that if we change key staff we’ve got to review their competence At the moment we’re thinking if you’ve got a design manager in your office that’s working with 3 or 4 drafts people if they’re overseeing what’s been done beneath them that’s probably sufficient as a starter for 10 But if we’ve got a chalk and a cheese of those people then we need to jointly have a look at them as a team When it gets to site – I mean we are using a biometric system so you can’t get on to site willy nilly You’ve got to have turned up with the right CSCS card that you’ve worked on this kind of project before with these products because what we can’t do is have a slater turning up and start to turn their hand to hot melt because times are a bit tough at the minute it’s a little bit different to work in copper.” So we need to be asking those questions before we give them an idea that we’ll let them on site but the problem is this is not a message that has got through to all main contractors the more I find that people are vaguely aware of the Building Safety Act or don’t understand the nuance We both attended the MCRMA event a few weeks ago ‘how many people talk about competence outside this forum?’ are going ‘we’re hearing nothing’ So it’s not a message that’s getting out “If you’re working towards competence It’s like writing bad rounds if you’ve attempted to write the risk assessment method statement and you’ve made a pig’s ear of it and we’ll go “What’s that You go away and you kind of use your learning experience They give you a slap on the hand and say get on with it The regulator will do that with competence If you are either ignorant of the law or even worse you’re aware of it but you’re thinking ‘it doesn’t apply to me’ they’re going to come looking for you shortly because they’re getting a little bit antsy about that There is definitely pressure within government now Kier Starmer has made it very clear that there’s going to be a reaction to the Grenfell inquiry final report and I think he’s going to be pushing the HSE and the regulator to get out there and show its teeth I don’t know whether you want to comment at all on whether you think they’re adequately resourced to police all this I think everybody’s aware that they’re struggling I don’t think this is a politically charged comment they’re useless and they don’t know what they’re doing They’ve got some actually really good technical people – we’re meeting them on a regular basis as we’re getting more projects getting closer to the higher risk buildings where they’re really going to have to show their mettle And they’ve got some really good people The problem is the timescales that they’ve got Where they are at at the moment is unclear But we do know they’ve had a terrible backlog on signing off one of Gateway 1 and Gateway 2 applications and they’ve actually come out in the press and apologised I’m not telling you anything new in that respect I do know they’re working hard to try and address their shortfalls and sort out the recruitment but there is only so fast you can go when you’ve got knowledge and experience that you can draw from industry because I don’t think there’s a business in this whole building that isn’t saying ‘I can’t get hold of the right people.’ They just don’t exist That the skills shortage means adding on any further demands to the people coming into the industry is presumably one would assume only going to exacerbate that shortage if you’re raising the bar ever higher So we’ve lost about 450,000 people out of the industry Some of it is people going “This is just getting too hard So we’ve got to consider how do we get people in How do you get the people who are in here now feeling comfortable there’s been quite a kick in the teeth for a lot of the smaller subcontractors I’m not going to apply for a card anymore And that’s just been their personal view What we don’t want to do is replicate that in proving competence And as you’re aware – the JCI – we’ve been working on a baseline competence assessment because the Building Safety Act will allow you to apply previous learning to prove your competence Particularly if you’re like me it’s only the last couple of years that certificates have been a big thing have gone in the round filing cabinet next to my desk and then gone away my management staff can prove that they’re on the right level and that they can bring on the next stage of the staff without fear of teaching them the wrong things” I’ve worked for some really good companies and I’ve worked with some really good people some of whom are in the audience today and they’ve taught me things about the right way to work But that’s not a great way for it to be It shouldn’t be “Look that I’m sat here” I’ve built my career working with people that just automatically do the right thing” And the cream rises to the top rather than just the lucky all you’ve been is bloody lucky” and that’s not great if we get the competence assessment that we deploy to middle management that’s a short form test online to be able to work your way through that and work out whether you’ve got shortfall in competence But it also means you’re doing the right things and you can train those below you And then if we start doing those assessments further down then people coming in with be able to say “Actually I can see what my progression is going to be” application and willingness to be professional And I think that’s going to be the most cost-effective balance because right now when we’ve got companies like ISG going bust taking billions out the market as they’ve gone we’ve heard of one subcontractor particularly getting taken for 15 million pounds that they’re probably never going to see again That’s an existential threat to their businesses we can’t then turn around and expect businesses to pay £10,000 per head to train their staff again for all they’ve done in the past 37 years We’ll kneecap them all and before long we won’t have an industry When I started the conversations with the regulator initially Until I had a fairly savage discussion with them a year and a half ago You either understand that this is going to be a journey of 5 to 10 years or you can go tell the PM that he’s going to lose 10% of GDP on the 1st of October when we supposed to be able to prove competence because it’ll be illegal for us to all trade” The trouble is with that if the industry hears that message – it’s 5 to 10 years before the industry as a whole to be competent – it dilutes it to ask the industry to take regulatory change seriously anyway because if you’ve been in the industry for a while you’ve seen new initiatives come and go if you put training into place to deliver that that that investment will never see a return what do you think will be the most important driver – other than money – in the industry as a whole becoming competence Will that be resting on having sufficient trainers or cultural change within organisations You touched on a couple of points that I’d like to pick up on we’ve got that as sort of “That’s our target We’ve got to be pragmatic because that’s what we can do” If we think that that’s going to water down the effect… Well which is “What about training certification?” How many operations are our there that could train for everybody in the next year Let’s say money’s not an object you go to even the biggest outfits and they’re talking about “We’ve got a thousand seats a year” we’re talking a hundred weeks – or are we talking 1000 a year So let’s be pragmatic and understand that in terms of doing the right thing I think the companies that grasp this quickly because they’ll be the only ones that can get on the high price I think anything that’s a little bit edgy design-wise they’re going to be benefiting there too But there’s also the fact that the guys and girls that are running these businesses do not want to be seeing the inside of a prison cell anytime soon or having unlimited fines put their way And that’s not even considering the fact that there are people out there We get to see the worst of it with things like the Grenfell inquiry there’s a thousand that actually want to do the right thing It’s just a very complicated machine that we run and we’re as strong as the weakest link If we hadn’t been training people and if we hadn’t got the right people in and we’ve been making do because A) nobody’s making enough money to pay for the training Like you said about the subcontractors on site Trying to manage that when you are leading a sizable it’s a terrifying prospect that your desire to do the right thing might not get to the bottom of the training And I’m fairly sure that these people are out there because the volunteers that we’ve got in the JCI come from a wide variety of companies and most of them spend most of the time picking it up and saying “Why are we not going faster?” which is a great thing and once individuals have become competent Do they have to do anything else afterwards I was talking to our head of building safety and our head of HR and we were talking about measuring the competence of our own people and we get this competence certificate and everything’s good And both me and the head of building safety went “No” because there’s two problems – one we’re working on a lot of MoJ work which is very specific in its standards We’ll end up with some really good experts in that field they’re going to be out of their depth because they’re no longer working with the same standards or the same products So we need to keep refreshing their training every time they move things that you did last year and haven’t done since You need to own your competence and keep up to date I was talking about that building envelope competence assessment – that’s a foundation to build on Don’t rest on your laurels at that point we had a new Document B supplement come out a few weeks ago which passed a lot of industry by because it came out so quietly on a Monday morning And you know we’re getting people going “What do you mean Class O The problem is there are big manufacturers that if they don’t sponsor and anybody here that’s working from a manufacturing perspective might not spot that coming through I can keep on top of what they’re doing with their products Make sure that they’re testing and they’re up to the right standards And then there’s some new standards falling quietly in the distance – trying to stay on top of that – the only way you’re doing it is with CPD and by CPD we use the CIOB definition – the Chartered Institute of Builders – which includes research It includes teaching other people about a document or a specification or a product it’s not just about sitting through an event like this getting your little CPD at the end of it going “Fantastic There’s no point just turning up to do a CPD for sake of a CPD just so my competence is up to date was I’d seen this LinkedIn post a couple of weeks ago – by an SME roofing contractor – and the post was to encourage his more experienced roofers to go through an OSAP process to gain an NVQ to A update themselves about the latest standards that they should be working to And he’d put in this LinkedIn post that the requirement to demonstrate competence was part of the post-Grenfell response; it was bigger than any individual everybody needs to do it and if they’d come into the industry relying on grandfather rights then this was a good idea And the post got over 250 comments from tradespeople basically suggesting that they were being blamed for Grenfell see the requirement to demonstrate competence as they’re being made scapegoats for what is systematic regulatory failure I think there’s more than systematic regulatory failure So the Grenfell final report has identified some issues with that and I don’t really want to cross-examine that document in a public forum I think we need to wait for the dust to settle and work out what is actually going to happen going forward I don’t think we’re all hiding under a rock waiting for it to go away We’re all very much engaged with it at tier one level and the recommendations are there for all to see do we want to blame the subcontractor installers how much did they choose in terms of material We all are – but they’re not the only problem When I started on this journey with competence we’ve got training cards for the installers” But what’s going to happen if we buy the wrong things with the wrong certifications and we bring them to site What we’re going to find is it’s going to be lovingly put on the wall So blaming site and saying that is the only issue I don’t think that was the thrust of the post I think that the post was possibly misinterpreted and possibly the wording could have been better The thrust to become more competent as installers – I’m all for that Are they entirely responsible for what went wrong I’ve opened up God knows how many buildings because obviously one of the first things I did was get introduced to many of our old buildings and some buildings for our clients that had been built by other contractors We opened them up to make sure we knew what problems we might have and we knew what problems might be on some of our other clients’ buildings And we found plenty of issues where there’s been that lack of forethought or it’s been a rush job or it’s just a job because we didn’t design it to fix and they didn’t put their hand up and go “Look this is rubbish” or “It doesn’t work Somebody design this because I can’t install a cloud on a drawing I want to kill 72 people by building this building wrong” where you’ve got this whole line behind the installer surely that shouldn’t happen if that works you’ve also got to think about – and again – the law and pragmatism are not always happy bedfellows they’ve got 2/3,000 people working on and off that site every day You can’t have 2 or 3000 additional supervisors standing over each one of them making sure that they’re doing it right And if you’ve got hundreds of thousands of drawings for that project the chance of something slipping through the net is possible It’s not impossible by any stretch of the imagination no matter how many levels of safeguarding you have but you want to make sure that those are the exception and they’re minor rather than they’re the rule because this is the way the industry works Everybody’s going to be looking for themselves and also for the next job I’m here to safeguard my team as a whole” So you would expect a roofer to get onto site and say “Oh this bit – this detail doesn’t look quite right to me” Even though they’re being paid by the result and there’s race to the bottom procurement everybody’s under financial pressure If we’re paying somebody piecemeal to do something They don’t keep the roof over the kids heads But if you’re competent and it’s wrong all outward indications say that you’re not will you not put that cavity barrier in and risk fire passing from flat to flat?” It’s the same thing I realise there’s a higher risk with a knife than there is with a cavity barrier It should be “This isn’t right” or “The detail doesn’t work somebody should be paying for that time because ultimately Do you think it will then take the prosecution of a contractor for contractors to wake up and see themselves as liable It will make boards sit up and lean more heavily on their management and their management more heavily on their operatives and there will be individuals that end up with massive fines but that shouldn’t be the reason for doing something that’s right when you finish constructing this building if you stand in the car park and look at it Would you let them work in there or live in there And if the answer isn’t a resounding yes – you’ve got it wrong Why are we not all doing that as we’re doing our part of the build So underlying everything is that individual assumption of responsibility >> Read more of the latest roofing news Issue 117 - March 2025 Sign up now to get news by email from Roofing Today CUPA 12: The trusted choice for the most skilled roofers RENOLIT ALKORPLAN Bright Membrane for Cool Roofs Traditional Roofing spring 2025 a paper by Peter Grünwald was published in the prestigious scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Grünwald is full professor of Statistical Learning at the Mathematical Institute and senior researcher at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica entitled Beyond Neyman–Pearson: E-values enable hypothesis testing with a data-driven alpha Read the entire article on the website of CWI.  Peter Grünwald is appointed as parttime full professor of Statistical Learning at the Mathematical Institute of Leiden University and senior researcher in the Machine Learning group of Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) such as a VIDI and VICI via NWO and an ERC Advanced Grant and in 2010 he was co-recipient of the Van Dantzig prize the highest Dutch award in statistics and operations research He has a great interest in foundations of statistics and regularly gives talks about the problems and difficulties surrounding traditional statistical methods Miroslav (Fred) Grunwald was born on January 12 His wife Ruth (Petric) was born on July 11 Fred was a Holocaust survivor who spent several years in Dachau He was prisoner # 60648 (listed as an Italian national under the name of Gruenwald) he wanted to make some kind of record of his life and experiences from which these pages have been transcribed Fred's wife, Ruth, was Catholic, but she was also a concentration camp survivor. The family believes that Ruth was in the Stara Gradiška section of the Jasenovac Concentration Camp in Croatia Ruth was sentenced to one year in the camp for helping Jewish families escape from the Nazis Fred died in 1987 as the result of a massive stroke he suffered while watching a PBS broadcast of the Holocaust documentary SHOAH lived another 15 years and died in her early 90s never having shared the story of her own time in the Jasenovac Camp I was suddenly again on the run and in hiding The Germans had the order to pick up all adult males and transport them for forced labor tasks behind chopped wood when a German patrol reached that place My pile of wood was immediately knocked down and there I was standing in front of a submachine gun Arrested and escorted to the local school and taken to a command post some 50 miles north right to the place of my sister-in-law's residence During an interrogation in that ordinary jail I managed to smuggle out a message to my sister-in-law and as a confirmation that she received it Now at least I knew that my family realized that I was alive We received one tin of soup and a small bread from the (Italian) staff but then the Germans transported us in police vans to their closest Gestapo command post in Abbazia (today Opatija) On the basis of my statement that I was a Christian Italian citizen and a resident with my sister-in-law and that her local business was still in my wife's maiden name I was released into her custody and thus I was again free on my word that I would not escape (in which case my sister-in-law would be arrested) I was picked up by the German military police and brought back; this time to the maximum security prison in Coroneo where the Gestapo headquarters was situated The only Italian was a sergeant at the reception desk he explained to me that I had to deposit my wedding ring and gold watch all of which I would get back when released from prison (which never happened; instead I received compensation from the Federal Republic of Germany of 150 American dollars) The accommodation that lasted thirty days in that “prison cell” deserves some description I was placed with 13 other prisoners in a standard toilet-washroom All of us had to spend 23 hours standing and We were really leaning on each other all day and night; semi-conscious and drowsy and just wishing to get rid of the person who was pressing against your body with every movement A slight improvement in our situation occurred about every hour when The first time it was my turn to be interrogated I nearly fell asleep in the office of the Gestapo officer but I soon was wide awake That was my first realization what Gestapo behavior meant my mother's language) from the German headquarters in Zagreb that I was not a Christian resident of the formerly Italian occupied territory the officer slapped me hard and sent me back to the “cell.” By now out of the 14 inmates who had come with me one was shot and the others transferred to other prisons or jails The food in the cell consisted of one liter of clear soup and a bun (Panini) Great hunger was now permanent and we hoped that this would end soon; one way or the other about several hundred of us were marched to the Trieste Railway Station and up to a hundred people were herded into one of the box cars At least I managed quickly to stretch on the floor in a corner The horror started when one of us felt the need for a toilet We were unable to escape the stench created by our own accumulating wastes We were not told where they were taking us urinated while standing or laying on the floor; all taking place in great silence as we just listened to the rolling of the wheels At the time we embarked we saw on each rail car a Nazi sign “Rails Must Roll for the Victory.” (Räder müssen rollen für den Sieg) A trip that was supposed to last 10-12 hours took three days because the Slovenian partisans destroyed the rails on several junctions in Austria. The third day our car was opened and the command was shouted to us, “Raus” (“out”). Only then did we know where we were; the railway station at Dachau we received a slice of bread and a little hot soup and then we were marched to the concentration camp The first impression at the entrance was misleading: there was a sign “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work Will Set You Free”) so I was determined to work very hard so as to get free as soon as possible An hour later we learned that the reality of the camp was different The sign meant that our possible freedom depended on a German victory (occupying the entire Soviet Union We were also warned that this was not a hotel or home for convalescence; that we were really convicts we were ordered to undress completely (it was thirty below zero!) many people just fell down and were taken to the crematoria I managed to get away with just contracting pneumonia and a high fever A Polish doctor (an older prisoner) saved my life in a miraculous way We were first brought into a barricade for disinfection This action deserves a description in detail First came a prisoner (with a black triangle for anti-socials) to trim our hair but then he shaved all hairs from our body with an old-fashioned razor Then came another prisoner with a pail of carbolic acid and with a hard barn brush An enormous burning sensation left us really suffering Then we went into the showers: first boiling hot water All of us that survived the bath with a suspiciously burnt skin went to another lineup for a medical examination An SS man presided and two Polish doctors (prisoners) examined us and proclaimed us fit for instant labor or for a couple of days “rest” I was the first to establish a third line and this third group got an instant treatment There was a pile of paper cement bags in which tar glued together several layers of paper The layers were separated and our bodies were covered with sticky tar paper This was supposed to reduce the skin inflammation and reduce the body temperature I was warned by one of the doctors that I still had to come every Saturday to remove the tar paper and take a bath but he whispered to me that the healing process would occur only if I could manage not to remove the tar paper for several months This meant I had to hide every Saturday and not go to the bathhouse with the others This would be a punishable offense if I were caught I managed not to get caught all through the winter months of 1943-44; always being in mortal fear of being found behind the barracks by allowing me to return to my barrack at noon with some foodstuff in my pockets as I usually hid where it was most dangerous; behind the barrack of Polish priests who managed to give me some dry food through the back window Once I was caught red-handed by a Capo (prison guard) who wanted to turn me over to the SS but then The “deal” involved my service to this Capo until the end of my incarceration; consisting of smuggling out of the camp which were not available to German farmers or carpenters and pieces of genuine leather for shoe repairs and selling these goods in German villages through which we marched to our worksites and splitting the proceeds with the Capo I was lucky never to be subjected to my pockets being searched at the camp entrance and to be able to barter with a nearby farmer; my handful of nails or a piece of leather (hidden in my oversize shoes) for two boiled potatoes or a small package of margarine My knowledge of German was of decisive importance in such transactions The time of this exchange while marching: thirty seconds all kinds of irregularities were beginning to occur in the camp and enormous shortages of war materials and food (due to ceaseless Allied bombings) the evacuations of concentration camps in Eastern Europe resulted in thousands of new prisoners in Dachau The capacity of Dachau grew from 5,000 in 1933 to 50,000 in 1943 First we hated each other but soon we realized that by sleeping pressed together The food was late and a loaf of bread was cut into 13 slices (instead of 9 or 10) the soup was more and more clear and only on Sundays would we find pieces of potatoes or even macaroni in it The overcrowding was also unbearable for other reasons The allotted time of five minutes in the mornings for the use of toilets was suddenly shortened an orderly would come with a 3 inch hose; sprinkling everybody sitting on the toilets (which did not have seats) and chased us out as the line to use the toilets was growing All these events forced the camp administration to make space for thousands of new arrivals First they created subsidiary camps; I was transferred to a nearby new camp at Rothschweige if just one louse was found on a prisoner (or other uncleanliness of the body) there was no sanitation at all and the barracks were practically sitting in mud Only one tap with cold water was available for drinking and washing and we were chased from the tap; whether our bowls were full or not There was a regimen here similar to Dachau It consisted mostly of emergency work (repair of railways after bombings and building new lines) A salt fish (herring) was added to our soup and on Sundays there were bombing raids all around the camp we were chased out of the barracks and into trenches sometimes full of muddy water after rainy days we spent the days and part of the nights in cold mud on the 28th listening to the explosions of incoming American artillery pieces and the defense of the last German anti-aircraft guns which were used against the approaching American armies The explosions were very close to our trenches and the noise shattering We went three days and three nights without food or water and many weak prisoners fell down into the mud and just died I had a fainting spell when I realized that everything was quiet; no shootings I realized that I was about to die and when I became conscious I found myself being carried by an American sergeant who took me to a temporary American first aid tent By the next day I was already able to walk As I discovered more details about the surroundings listening to announcements of the American Command and the national and international committees mingling with American soldiers and discussing what to do next The rusted barbed wire around the camp was repaired and replaced with new wire and leaving the camp was forbidden without a special pass These passes were issued only to people who volunteered or were appointed for the necessary services for the welfare of prisoners I volunteered with a small Red Cross special group of four we confiscated in surrounding villages: sheets beds and everything that was needed to create a decent hospital I volunteered for a few days to pull out from the stinky barracks dead bodies of prisoners which were stacked at the entrance and picked up by another crew for burial (48 in a mass grave Most of the dead were listed by their number and the lists delivered to the National Liberation Committees A horrible lesson was learned by all of us: what to eat and what not to eat a mobile kitchen came into the camp with cooked dry beans and bacon; food meant for Italians The American army was asked to provide this kind of thick Some prisoners attacked the first unit and helped themselves The wretched individuals picked out the cooked bacon and swallowed a lot we saw some falling to the floor in great pain and terrible cramps The American Red Cross took them to the emergency hut prisoners were well-fed and delegations from liberated countries soon arrived to pick up their nationals for repatriation The first transports were to West-European countries and My turn came with a group of twenty Yugoslav survivors none of them from my original group of 500 I was rewarded by finding and seeing my wife and daughter again but not eighteen of my relatives who simply disappeared within the Holocaust Listen to or read Holocaust survivors’ experiences told in their own words through oral histories 36% of all banned titles featured characters or people of color and a quarter (25%) included LGBTQ+ people or characters This week-long intensive provides an in-person workshop for early-career writers from communities underrepresented in the publishing world Learn how the creation and display of art is entwined with the U.S.’s most fraught cultural and political debates The next four years could reshape the United States for decades to come Join us in fighting every day to protect the freedom to write and the freedom to read In an interview with Jeremy C. Young, PEN America’s Freedom to Learn program director, Grunwald discusses the value of looking at a major historical event through the lens of one woman’s experiences, and the importance of challenging one’s beliefs and keeping an open mind. (Bookshop) Because of Donald Trump – or at least the divisions in the country that Trump unearthed I was struck by the fact that people I knew were divided by this phenomenon to the point where at family gatherings suddenly politics was a forbidden topic because it was so emotional and so divisive and I was looking for a time in American life when things seemed as passionately divided as they do now and it was just an irresistible impulse to dive into that moment My understanding of the Scopes trial was shaped to a large extent by this play I thought it was very black and white – the good guys versus the bad guys and that William Jennings Bryan was not Donald Trump I think Ed Larson’s book is marvelous in correcting the record so I can’t judge the specifics of how accurate or inaccurate that amazing book is look at Inherit the Wind and realize that the demonization of Bryan The trial was certainly dramatic; I’ve read the transcript a thousand times Don’t you realize that the Earth would have shriveled if the sun had stood still Do you really mean that Jonah stayed alive inside of a whale” – or “a big fish?” I initially thought Darrow had scored a point; hooray for the intellectual team “One miracle is as easy for me to believe as another” – it suddenly made sense to me that if you believe in a supernatural being of course you believe that it can control nature in any way it wants So my book sits somewhere in between these two milestones to what I always thought of as the other side “I was looking for a time in American life when things seemed as passionately divided as they do now.“ The trial took place at a time when women had just gotten the vote but in the South as well – just beginning to understand the power that they had and because I wanted to look at how great political struggles can affect a family are fabulously famous for their posturing and their eloquence and their passions and Annabel – dealt with the intensity of those men I wanted a woman who had never been exposed to these ideas to be exposed to them and also I wanted her to have a moment of independence and freedom which I think she achieves by the end of the book – but we’ll see I thought that the other version had been told so many times When I first started thinking about the book I’ll have a woman who’s married to an atheist The more I read – and not just about the time about how these events are viewed from what I think of as the other side – the more I wanted to try to understand what a woman of faith would feel I had the good fortune of knowing a woman about 10 years younger than I am who had lived in New York for a brief while while trying to be an opera singer I got her on the phone – I hadn’t talked to her in years – and I just said “Could you please explain what this is all about Would you allow me to ask you questions?” We had amazing conversations because she was trying to explain a different language and I was trying to learn a different language I’m not sure I’ll ever entirely understand the necessity of ruling out or keeping out science But it would have been too predictable and too easy for me to have a character who was all sciencey I wanted somebody whom I didn’t understand in the first place and whom I came to understand as I learned more I don’t think Lottie and Annabel saw themselves that way even though they were creating something that was part of a record; they were responding to the moment Darrow and Bryan were trying much harder and shooting much higher for a lasting effect Lottie is based on a real reporter named Nellie Kenyon who was the first person to get a press pass to the trial the second that the ACLU issued its challenge But I think Bryan and Darrow were both aiming for the fences They were really trying to create the definitive argument between the two sides The other thing that I discovered is that Darrow had already asked Bryan these questions in another venue it seemed as if he was just thinking of them Where did Cain get his wife?” and so forth I wanted there to be some level of credibility that this wasn’t just being written by a 64-year-old New York Jewish woman Credibility is essential when you’re writing historical fiction How I did it was largely by keeping myself from trying too hard and we read each other’s work all the time “your facts are showing.” That is a great temptation Google Southern vernacular of the early twentieth century and you come up with fabulous expressions that wasn’t using any words that she wouldn’t have known – that’s really important – and that she not describe things with metaphors or references to things she wouldn’t have known about There’s a lot of fact checking involved in this You want to say “as fast as a plane,” and you realize she’s never seen a plane I sent them both a very early version of the manuscript I had something about black-eyed Susans in the field “You’d never call them black-eyed Susans; it’s always black-Eyed Susies.” So there were little things like that where I got corrected along the way I would have said Papa.” That kind of thing So my best efforts not to sound like a New Yorker trying to sound like a Southerner but it’s certainly a novel about a woman’s independence and her sense of herself When I was first describing this book to my editor Susan Kamil – who unfortunately died very young and very fairly recently – Susan was on the telephone but she had called in from wherever she was and I was rattling on about what I thought the book would be the main character’s expression of independence is to die – to kill herself because there’s no other way for her to be free of marriage But there’s definitely this sense that her discovery – and I think this is true of a lot of women then too – that you get to a moment where you can look at your life and say or this isn’t actually what I deserve; I’m entitled to something more The largest debate that I had with my friend Debbie was that she said Annabel would never leave her husband What would your husband have to do in order for you to leave?” Because along the way to leaving there would be a lot of prayer and a lot of compassion and a lot of just hoping that he finds his way back But in that sense I gave Annabel more freedom and decided that she simply needed to get out of this that she was young enough and curious enough that she could get out of the situation she was in I think that’s a much more hopeful feminism than swimming out too far in the water until you drown I felt I needed to be very careful and delicate around that question The Ku Klux Klan was incredibly big in Tennessee that most of the waiters at the Aqua Hotel in Dayton were Black and some of them might well have been aware of the antagonism that was aimed at them while they were serving meals I was also very much aware that the dark side of Darwinism is eugenics and I wanted Annabel to be repelled by that idea she would have gotten far enough in her thinking after just a little bit of exposure to the implications of that that she would have been as appalled as we are One aspect of the trial that I didn’t get into: there were present at the trial in Dayton a number of Black preachers – one in particular from the North who had come to support John Scopes because Darwinian logic said that there were different races Yet the argument from this preacher was that if you improve education in general eventually you’re going to improve education for Black people as well In the Black press – I read a lot of it – there were cartoons There are a bunch of monkeys sitting in trees and a very small depiction in the distance of a lynching The caption is something like: “And they say we’re less evolved.” That view that showed up in Black newspapers; not at all that I could see in the mainstream media “The bigger take away that I would want a reader to have is: What are the questions you haven’t asked There was a time that I set the novel in the future and had her looking back But it required a very specific set of decisions about where she ended up and what she ended up believing when I was a religious person I thought this I imagine her bicycling around a college campus somewhere But I didn’t actually want to complete that narrative to a future in which she was more enlightened The specific message is that the classroom should be a place where ideas of all sorts are present but that it should not be a place where any religion is considered something that must be taught It’s absolutely clear to me that the First Amendment says you can’t do this – you can’t put Christianity in a classroom and it’s about the classroom and about Scopes’s apparently absolutely sincere desire to say The bigger take away that I would want a reader to have is: What are the questions you haven’t asked And push yourself to look across the aisle and expose yourself to that about which you have assumptions It’s really about tolerating the discomfort of asking a difficult question Lisa Grunwald is the author of the novels The Evolution of Annabel Craig she edited the anthologies The Marriage Book Grunwald is an occasional essayist and runs a side hustle called ProcrastinationArts where she sells the other things she makes with pencils and paper I could only share my family’s trauma if I told it in context reminding readers that my elders struggled not because of a moral failure on their part but because of societal and governmental pressures Read More and sometimes being productive means taking an idea you thought up in a previous story or turning it around to look at it from another angle Read More Some of the breakthrough moments came when I decided I would be reckoning not only with my ancestress’s trauma and how they raised us to understand that you can overcome nearly anything in your journey Read More I’m very clear about what I want to say and how I want to say it when I try to sell a book Read More and learn by donating to PEN America today Copyright © 2025 PEN America. 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