Biography of Simone Veil

Simone Veil

Hello, today we are going to talk about a woman who was very important in France. This woman is Simone Veil

At first we will see her biography, after that we will linger on the course of her life, then we will see the different fights for which she fought throughout her life, to finish we will speak to you about the film which was made on Simone Veil.

BIOGRAPHY

Simone Veil or her birth name Simone Jacob was born on July 13, 1927 in Nice and died on June 30, 2017 in Paris at the age of 89. She was married to Antoine Veil since October 26, 1946.

HER LIFE

Simone Veil's parents were Yvonne Steinmetz and André Jacob.

They had three children before Simone, Madeline, Denise and Jean Jacob.

Simone's family is Jewish but not practicing, it is very secular.

HER CHILDHOOD

During her childhood, Simone's family was forced to move because of the crisis of 1929 and they had to leave their apartment for a smaller one.

In 1937 Simone entered the sixth grade at the girls' high school where she studied until her baccalaureate.

THE SECOND WORLD WAR

On September 3, 1939, the war is declared. The United Kingdom and then France went to war against Germany for having attacked Poland. On May 10, 1939, Germany attacked France. Then on June 14, Germany managed to enter Paris.

France, having no more options, was obliged to sign the armistice on June 22, 1940, which meant that France was subject to a partial occupation of the territory, but Nice was not part of the territory occupied by the Germans.

On October 4, 1940, the government established the status of the Jews, which imposed professional bans and required the Jews to declare themselves as Jews.

Simone's father, André Jacob, took the steps required by the government and lost his job as an architect. He spent his days trying to find food for his family.

The Jews were obliged to wear a yellow star to be distinguished from non-Jews.

Meanwhile, Simone continued her education at the Lycée de jeunes filles.

In 1942, following a landing by the Allies in North Africa, Germany was occupied and therefore the free zone was also occupied. But it gave departments east of the Rhone to the Italian occupation.

The situation did not change in Nice because the Italian army did not implement the anti-Semitic measures of the Nazi regime.

On September 3, 1943, the department under Italian occupation became under German control

The Gestapo, which was the political police of the Nazi state, began its work in Nice.

They started to arrest the Jews and then deported them.

André Jacob, who learned of the arrest of a close family, warned Denise and Madelaine, Simone's sisters who were in a Girl Scout camp.

Denise decides to join the Franc-tireur movement, which is a resistance movement, while Madelaine returns to Nice.

In November, Simone had to stop going to high school to work at the municipal library.

Simone's parents had managed to get her false papers.

Simone was thus in the name of Jacquier. In March 1944, she still passed her baccalauréat.

HER ARREST

On March 30, while she was celebrating the end of the baccalaureate exams with friends from her class, which her parents had forbidden her to do.

She was controlled in the city center by two Germans who detected the falsification of her identity papers and she was arrested.

Simone tried to warn her family by giving the address on a piece of paper to a boy but he was caught by the Gestapo.

In the following hours Yvonne her mother, Madelaine her sister and Jean her brother are also arrested.

They were sent to the Drancy camp and the three women left for Auschwitz, the journey lasting two and a half days.

To avoid the selection and the extermination she says that she is 18 years old

She was indeed chosen for the work.

A woman suave her life by mutating her in an annex of Auschwitz because for the woman she was too beautiful to die. Simone accepted on condition that her mother and sister came with her. They were transferred in July.

The camp where Simone was staying was evacuated because of the advance of the Russian army. On January 18, the German police took their prisoners on a death march of about 70 kilometers. The prisoners were then transferred by train for a journey of 8 days.

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