Simone veil children
Simone Veil addresses protesters outside the European Parliament in Strasbourg on March 25, 1980. © Dominique Faget, AFP
Simone Veil, the revered French politician who survived the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz and defied institutional sexism to push through a law legalising abortion in France, has died on June 30th 2017. She was 89.
In the shadow of war
Simone Veil and former French president Jacques Chirac stand before the Wall of Names at the Shoah Memorial in Paris on January 25, 2005. The wall bears the names of Jews deported from France to Nazi death camps during World War II. © Jacques Brinon, AFP
A widely respected figure across the political divide, Veil was the first female leader of the European Parliament and the recipient of France’s highest distinctions, including a seat among the “Immortals” of the Académie française, the prestigious state-sponsored body overseeing the French language and usage. She was renown Simone veil et jacques chirac biography1.