Simone Veil

13 July 1927 – 30 June 2017

Simone Veil was a French politician and Holocaust survivor who served as Minister of Health and as the first elected President of the European Parliament. She is best remembered for championing the 1975 law legalizing abortion in France, known as the Veil Law.

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Life events

Born in Nice, France
13 July 1927

Born Simone Jacob into a Jewish family.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau
April 1944

Survived deportation and imprisonment in Nazi concentration camps.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Became a magistrate in the French justice system
1957

Worked as a senior official in the prison and judicial administration.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Appointed Minister of Health
May 1974 – 1979

Served in the government of President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Enacted the Veil Law legalizing abortion
17 January 1975

Championed and secured passage of the law decriminalizing abortion in France.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Elected first President of the European Parliament
17 July 1979 – 1982

Became the first president of the directly elected European Parliament.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Elected to the Académie française
2008

Became a member of France's foremost literary and scholarly institution.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Died in Paris
30 June 2017

Died at age 89; she was later interred in the Panthéon.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓