Simone Veil
Resistance & Human Rights • Historical Archive • 🇫🇷 France • 13 views

Simone Veil 🇫🇷

Simone Annie Liline Jacob (Known as "Icon of Reconciliation and Women's Rights / First President of the European Parliament")
Magistrate, Minister of Health, First Elected President of European Parliament, Panthéon Honoree
Born 13 July 1927 🇫🇷 Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France
Passed Away 30 June 2017 Paris, France
Lifespan 89 years old
13 views
Notice / Correction
"Aucune femme ne recourt de gaieté de cœur à l'avortement. C'est toujours un drame. / La liberté, la tolérance et le respect de la dignité humaine sont des combats quotidiens."

Archival Overview

Auschwitz survivor, magistrate, and statesman who as French Minister of Health overcame vicious opposition to legalize abortion (Loi Veil, 1975), and became the first directly elected President of the European Parliament.

Biographical Record

Simone Veil (née Jacob; 1927 – 2017) was a French magistrate, statesman, and moral titan of modern Europe. In March 1944, at age sixteen, she was arrested by the Gestapo in Nice and deported with her family to Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen; her parents and brother perished in the camps, while Simone and her sisters survived.

Entering the judiciary, Veil reformed French prison conditions. Appointed Minister of Health in 1974 by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, she faced torrential misogynistic and antisemitic attacks in the National Assembly to successfully pass the historic 'Loi Veil' in 1975, legalizing abortion. In 1979, she was elected the first President of the directly elected European Parliament, embodying post-war Franco-German reconciliation. Inducted into the Académie française and the Panthéon, her concentration camp tattoo—number 78651—remained visible on her arm throughout her public life.

Key Life Milestones

26 November 1974

The Historic Abortion Law Address

Delivered celebrated speech to the French National Assembly, defending female health and autonomy to pass the Loi Veil.

17 July 1979

First President of European Parliament

Elected as inaugural president of the first directly elected European Parliament in Strasbourg, cementing European unity.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Panthéon
Paris, France
GPS: 48.8462, 2.3464
View on Memory Atlas
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