Simone Veil

Simone Veil was a French magistrate, Holocaust survivor, and politician known for her leadership in advancing women’s rights and European integration.

Simone Veil was a French magistrate, Holocaust survivor, and politician known for her leadership in advancing women’s rights and European integration. As France’s health minister, she helped secure the 1975 law legalising abortion, and in 1979 she became the first woman elected President of the European Parliament.

Early life and wartime experience

Born Simone Annie Jacob in Nice on 13 July 1927, Veil was deported as a teenager to the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau and later Bergen-Belsen during the Second World War. These experiences strongly shaped her later commitment to human rights, Holocaust remembrance, and European unity.

Political career in France

Veil entered senior public service as France’s Minister of Health from 1974 to 1979. She is best known for defending and securing the 1975 law legalising abortion in France, a major reform widely referred to as the Veil Act.

European leadership

In 1979, Veil became the first woman elected President of the European Parliament, serving until 1982. Her election symbolised both her stature in European politics and her strong support for European integration and postwar reconciliation.

Later public roles and legacy

After her European political career, Veil served on France’s Constitutional Council from 1998 to 2007 and led the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah, supporting Holocaust memory and education. She is remembered as a major figure in French politics, women’s rights, and postwar European cooperation.