Simone Veil Biography Quotes 3 Report mistakes

Early Life and Family
Simone Veil was born Simone Annie Liline Jacob on July 13, 1927, in Nice, France, into a secular Jewish family. Her father, Andre Jacob, was an architect, and her mother, Yvonne Jacob (nee Steinmetz), managed the household with a strong emphasis on education and civic responsibility. Simone grew up with three siblings: sisters Denise and Madeleine (known as Milou), and a brother, Jean. The turbulence of the Second World War would profoundly mark the family and shape Simone's life and commitments.

Deportation, Survival, and Return
In March 1944, at the age of 16, Simone was arrested in Nice and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau with her mother and sister Madeleine. She survived the camp system, including a transfer toward the end of the war to Bergen-Belsen, where conditions were catastrophic. Her mother Yvonne died of typhus shortly before liberation. Her father Andre and brother Jean, deported separately, disappeared and are believed to have been killed in 1944. Simone and Madeleine survived; their sister Denise, who had joined the Resistance, was also deported and survived. Returning to France in 1945, Simone confronted the enormity of loss and the challenges of rebuilding a life from the ruins. The experience left her with an unshakable commitment to human dignity, justice, and European reconciliation.

Studies and Entry into Public Service
After the war, Simone resumed her education in Paris, earning a law degree and studying political science. In 1946 she married Antoine Veil, a brilliant young civil servant who would himself become a prominent figure in French public life and business. The couple had three sons, including Jean and Pierre-Francois. Rather than practicing as a lawyer, Simone chose the judiciary and public administration. She entered the magistracy in the mid-1950s and built a reputation for rigor, empathy, and reformist energy. Working particularly on prison administration and justice policy at the Ministry of Justice, she advocated improvements to detention conditions, respect for prisoners' rights, and better rehabilitation and reentry pathways. These formative years honed her skills in negotiation and policy design and cemented her belief that law should serve both liberty and public health.

Minister of Health and the Veil Law
Simone Veil became nationally prominent when President Valery Giscard d Estaing and Prime Minister Jacques Chirac appointed her Minister of Health in 1974. She arrived at a moment of intense social debate. Building on earlier advances in contraception, she made access to birth control more effective and equitable. Most consequentially, she introduced the 1974-1975 legislation to legalize voluntary interruption of pregnancy under strict conditions, a measure soon known as the Veil Law.

The parliamentary battle was fierce. Veil addressed the National Assembly with composure and moral clarity, facing down hostile attacks, including misogynistic and antisemitic rhetoric from some deputies. She framed the reform as a public health necessity and a matter of women's autonomy and dignity, mindful of the tragedies caused by clandestine abortions. With decisive backing from Chirac and Giscard d Estaing, and cross-party support, the law passed in 1975, initially on a trial basis before being made permanent. The Veil Law became a landmark of the Fifth Republic, transforming the lives of millions of women and establishing Simone Veil as a symbol of courage and compassion in politics.

European Commitment and Leadership
Veil's commitment to a peaceful, democratic Europe grew directly from her wartime experience. In 1979, after France's legislative term, she stood for the first direct elections to the European Parliament, won a seat, and was elected the Parliament's first president. Serving from 1979 to 1982, she worked across parties to strengthen the Parliament's legitimacy and role, building relationships with European statesmen and champions of integration such as Altiero Spinelli. Her leadership gave a human face to European construction: reconciliation through institutions, rights, and the rule of law. She continued as a Member of the European Parliament for several terms, advancing public health cooperation, consumer protection, and women's rights.

Return to Government and Constitutional Responsibilities
Veil returned to the French government in 1993 as Minister of State for Social Affairs, Health, and Cities under Prime Minister Edouard Balladur. She focused on the sustainability of health insurance, prevention, and patient rights, and she pursued policies aimed at social cohesion in urban areas. In 1998, she was appointed to the Conseil constitutionnel, France's Constitutional Council, where she served until 2007. The appointment recognized her legal acumen, institutional experience, and reputation for independence. In this role she helped safeguard constitutional principles at a time of rapid social and technological change.

Memory, Scholarship, and Public Voice
Alongside her institutional duties, Veil became a central figure in Holocaust remembrance and education. She chaired the Fondation pour la Memoire de la Shoah, supporting research, teaching, and witness testimony, and she spoke tirelessly against denial and trivialization of the genocide. In 2007 she published Une vie, a bestselling memoir that braided intimate recollection with civic reflection. The book offered a concise moral vision: that societies must face their own histories, protect the vulnerable, and rely on law and mutual respect rather than violence.

Elected to the Academie francaise in 2008, Veil took her seat among France's immortals as a stateswoman whose words and acts had shaped national life. The Academie recognized not only her eloquence but the exemplary consistency of her commitments across decades.

Personal Life and Legacy
The love and partnership between Simone and Antoine Veil sustained both of their careers, and his death in 2013 was a deeply felt loss. Simone Veil died on June 30, 2017, in Paris. In 2018, in a rare and solemn tribute reflecting the breadth of her impact, her remains, along with those of Antoine, were transferred to the Pantheon. The honor inscribed her in the nation's civic memory as a figure of conscience and action.

Simone Veil's legacy reaches far beyond any single law or office. As a magistrate and minister, she joined compassion to institutional reform; as a Holocaust survivor, she transformed personal trauma into a constructive public ethic; as a European leader, she gave democratic substance to the promise of never again. The people around her help tell the story: the mother she mourned, the sisters with whom she survived and rebuilt, the husband and sons who shared her private world, and political partners such as Valery Giscard d Estaing and Jacques Chirac who lent crucial support at decisive moments. For generations of Europeans, her name remains synonymous with dignity, courage, and the defense of fundamental rights.

Our collection contains 3 quotes who is written by Simone, under the main topics: Wisdom - Poetry - Teaching.