 There was an urgent need to acquire English, and it was decided that Hannah Arendt should spend two months with an American family in Winchester, Massachusetts, through Self-Help for Refugees, in July.She found the experience difficult but formulated her early appraisal of American life, "Der Grundwiderspruch des Landes ist politische Freiheit bei gesellschaftlicher Knechtschaft" (The fundamental contradiction of the country is political freedom coupled with social slavery).On returning to New York, Arendt was anxious to resume writing and became active in the German-Jewish community, publishing her first article, "From the Dreyfus Affair to France Today" (in translation from her German) in July 1942.