Simone Veil was a renowned French magistrate and politician who held significant positions in the French government and the European Parliament. She is most notably recognized for her role in advancing women's rights in France, particularly through the 1975 law that legalized abortion, also known as the Veil Act.
As a Holocaust survivor, Veil was a strong advocate for European integration as a means of ensuring peace. She served as the president of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah from 2000 to 2007 and later became its honorary president. Throughout her life, she received numerous honors, including being made an honorary dame in 1998, elected to the Académie Française in 2008, and awarded the grand cross of the Légion d'honneur in 2012.
Born in Nice, France, on July 13, 1927, Simone Jacob was the youngest of four siblings. Her family moved from Paris to Nice in 1924, and her father, André Jacob, was an architect who won the Prix de Rome for Architecture. Veil's mother, Yvonne Steinmetz, had to abandon her studies in chemistry after marriage.
During World War II, the family managed to avoid deportation by living under false identities. Simone's sister, Denise, joined the French Resistance, while Simone passed her baccalaureate exam under her real name in March 1944. The next day, she was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Auschwitz, where she was held in the transit camp of Drancy.
Simone's family was split up during the war, and her brother and father were deported to the Baltic states, never to be seen again. Her sister, Denise, was deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she survived and was later reunited with Simone.
Veil served as the President of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1982, becoming the first woman to hold the position. She was a member of the Constitutional Council of France from 1998 to 2007 and held various other positions throughout her career.
