Simone Veil.

Growing up in a secular Jewish family in Nice, Simone Veil was the youngest of four siblings, including future Resistance figure Denise Vernay. Born on July 13, 1927, she faced the Nazi occupation from an early age. In March 1944, at 16, she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she was assigned number 78651. She survived the camp and was liberated in 1945.

After studying law at the Paris Law Faculty and Sciences Po, Veil passed the national magistracy exam in 1956. She began her political career as a technical advisor to Minister of Justice René Pleven. In 1974, President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing appointed her Minister of Health, a post she held until 1979. Her signature achievement was piloting the law legalizing abortion, known as the Loi Veil, adopted on January 17, 1975 despite intense opposition. From 1979 to 1982 she served as the first elected female President of the European Parliament, a role that elevated her international profile. Veil later returned as Minister of Health and Social Affairs from 1993 to 1995. She concluded her public service on the Conseil constitutionnel from 1998 to 2007 and was elected to the Académie Française in 2008.

Simone Veil married Antoine Veil on October 20, 1946; they remained together until his death in 2013. They had three sons: Jean born 1947, Claude-Nicolas 1948–2002, and Pierre-François born March 16, 1954. Her brother Jean Jacob died in a car accident, while sister Denise Vernay was a Resistance heroine. Veil never removed the tattoo of number 78651 from her left arm. Her deportation friend Marceline Loridan Ivens gave a moving testimony at her burial in 2017.

Simone Veil’s Loi Veil changed women’s rights in France, remaining a cornerstone of French law. She received numerous honors including the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, the Charlemagne Prize, and an honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1998. Her official ceremonial sword at the Académie Française bears her concentration camp number 78651. She is remembered as a symbol of European integration and feminism, and her life was depicted in the 2024 documentary Simone Veil – Les combats d’une effrontée.