"... a purely philanthropic matter ..."

In February 1943, two French battleships and their crews visit New York City. Simone Weil and her parents arrived six months earlier, with Simone leaving for London in November, to work with the Free French.

According to du Plessix Gray, Simone Weil "loathed the idea of coming to the United States. " In a letter to her brother André, Weil writes:

"[Americans'] hospitality is a purely philanthropic matter, and it is repugnant to me to be the object of philanthropy. It is more flattering ... to be the object of persecution." (182)