22 Facts About Simone Veil

Simone Veil served as president of the Fondation pour la Memoire de la Shoah from 2000 to 2007, and then as its honorary president.

Simone Veil Jacob was born on 13 July 1927 to an atheist Jewish family in Nice.

Simone Veil's father Andre Jacob was an architect who graduated from the Beaux-Arts de Paris and went on to win the Prix de Rome for Architecture.

Simone Veil was the youngest of four siblings, Madeleine, born in 1923; Denise, born in 1924 and Jean, born in 1925.

Denise left for Lyon to join the resistance, while 16-year-old Simone Veil continued studying and passed her baccalaureat exam under her real name in March 1944.

Simone Veil later wrote that she managed to avoid the gas chamber by lying about her age and was registered for the labour camp.

Madeleine fell ill but, like Simone Veil, was saved when the camp was liberated on 15 April 1945.

Simone Veil entered the National Penitentiary Administration under the Ministry of Justice, where she held a senior position and was responsible for judicial affairs.

Simone Veil improved women's prison conditions and the treatment of incarcerated women.

Simone Veil successfully achieved the right to dual parental control of family legal matters and adoptive rights for women.

From 1974 to 1979, Simone Veil was a Minister of Health in the governments of prime ministers Jacques Chirac and Raymond Barre: from 28 May 1974 to 29 March 1977, Minister of Health; from 29 March 1977 to 3 April 1978, Minister of Health and Social Security; and from 3 April 1978 to 4 July 1979, Minister of Health and Family.

Since the passing of the law, many have paid tribute to Simone Veil and thanked her for her courageous and determined fight.

In 1976, Simone Veil helped to introduce a ban on smoking in certain public places and worked on the problem of medically underserved rural areas.

In 1979, Simone Veil was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in the first European parliamentary election.

In 1981, Simone Veil won the prestigious Charlemagne Prize, an award given to honour the contributions made by individuals to advancing the unity of Europe.

Simone Veil was Chair of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party until 1989.

From 31 March 1993 to 16 May 1995, Simone Veil was again a member of the cabinet, serving as Minister of State and Minister of Health, Social Affairs and the city in the government of Prime Minister Edouard Balladur.

Simone Veil was by his side on the day after he received 31 per cent of the vote in the first round of the presidential elections that year.

In 2008, Simone Veil became the sixth woman to be elected to the Academie francaise.

Simone Veil joined the Academy's forty "immortals", as the members are informally known, occupying the 13th seat, once the seat of literary figure Jean Racine.

On 5 July 2017, Simone Veil was honoured with a national ceremony and military honours in the courtyard of les Invalides, after which she was interred next to her husband, who died in 2013, at Montparnasse Cemetery.

On 8 March 2019, the first Simone Veil Prize was awarded to Aissa Doumara Ngatansou, co-founder of the Association for the Elimination of Violence against Women in Cameroon.