1097: Simone Veil
It Takes a Special Person to Become an Immortal
Born: 13 July 1927, Nice, France
Died: 30 June 2017, Paris, France
Simone was a lawyer, magistrate, and politician. She also became a champion of women’s rights (today, she is most remembered in France for pushing through and succeeding in seeing abortion legalized in her country in 1974). While working for the Ministry of Justice, Simone fought to see French female prisoners be given better conditions in which to serve their sentences. While working as the Minister of Health, Simone fought for adoption rights and parental control equality between the sexes, as well as the aforementioned fight for legalized abortion.
Simone served in several government capacities, including the French Minister of Health (becoming only the second woman to hold a Minister position in the French government’s history), French under-secretary of Social Affairs, Health, and Urban Issues, President of the European Parliament, and was a member of the Constitutional Council of France. Simone was the first woman to lead the European Parliament.
Even more incredible? She did all of this after surviving The Shoah as a younger woman. Simone was incarcerated at Auschwitz Concentration Camp (and given the inmate number 78651). She and four members of her family were all deported from France for their Jewish heritage. Of the five, only Simone and her sister Madeleine would survive, although her sister would die in a car accident only seven years after the end of the war. Simone’s family were Jewish by heritage but did not actively practice the religion. Her sister Denise was a member of the Resistance in Lyon and would eventually be arrested herself and sent to Ravensbruck, but she too survived the war. When Simone and her sister Denise were set free at war’s end from Bergen-Belsen, Simone was still only seventeen years old. Simone’s parents and brother all perished in the course of the Shoah, her mother from Typhus while her father and brother’s fate after deportation is unknown.
Simone eventually became one of France’s so-called “Immortals” (only the sixth woman to ever earn that honor). The Immortals are members of the Académie française, which is responsible for updating and maintaining the French language. Each Immortal is given a sword that is engraved and customized for that individual. Simone’s sword had her Auschwitz number, the motto of the French Republic, and the motto of the European Union. As someone who took several French classes in college, I can say that my French teacher literally described the Immortals as “Gods” for the French people, so yeah—Simone was impressive to say the least.
Simone was also awarded one of the highest honors the French government can bestow, the Grande Croix de la Légion d’Honneur, in 2012. This was only one of the many awards and accommodations she received throughout her career.
Simone was married and had three sons.
Simone accomplished so much in her life; she became only the fifth woman to be buried in the Paris Panthéon. According to Google, her burial in the Panthéon took place one year and one day after her death, which is one of the fastest re-burials in the Panthéon’s history. As of the time of her burial, seventy-seven other individuals rest in the elite mausoleum. Simone rests alongside other greats like Marie Sklodowska Curie, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Sadly in 2021, a memorial marker dedicated to Simone in France was vandalized and defaced with images of Swastikas. The memorial was defaced three times in the course of a week. Unfortunately as of the time of writing this article it does not seem as though the perpetrators have been caught.
In 2024, the French government announced they were redesigning their 10, 20, and 50 cent Euro coins with the images of Simone, Josephine Baker, and Marie Sklodowska Curie. The new coins will gradually be put into circulation beginning over the summer.
Badges Earned:
Find a Grave Marked
Sources:
https://webdoc.france24.com/obituary-simone-veil-holocaust-women-abortion-france/
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/veil-simone
https://europa.eu/european-union/sites/default/files/foundingfathers-simoneveil-en-hd.pdf