Elias Forneris, a Cambridge-based scholar of WWII refugees, explores the life and London exile (1942-1943) of Simone Weil, one of the 20th century's most brilliant philosophers. Weil fled Paris with her Jewish family via Marseille, Casablanca, and New York, eventually joining General de Gaulle's Free France government in London as a political analyst. Despite her intellectual prowess and desperate desire to contribute directly to the war effort (she had proposed parachuting volunteer nurses into occupied France), she found her administrative role unfulfilling. Working 18-hour days on a charter of human rights and her manuscript The Need for Roots while living as an ascetic on reduced rations, Weil collapsed in April 1943. She deteriorated rapidly in the hospital—refusing food, experiencing pulmonary problems—and resigned from Free France in July 1943. She died in exile at age 34. Her London period, though brief, catalyzed some of her most enduring philosophical work.
