Ana Aleksić
November 27, 2022
“ATTENTION IS THE RAREST AND PUREST FORM OF GENEROSITY” – SIMONE VEIL
Few Serbs know the name Simone Veil. Almost every French person will speak of her with great respect, as a symbol of courage and an uncompromising humanitarian. Much of what modern French women represent today is, in some way, her contribution, just as every European proudly cherishes the unity and achievements of the Union.
“We were convinced that if the victors of 1945 failed to achieve swift and complete reconciliation with Germany, the wounds of Europe, already torn between East and West, would never heal, and the world would be on the path to another conflict, even more devastating than the previous ones.” These were the words of Simone Veil, a woman who survived Auschwitz, served as France’s Minister of Health, fought for women’s rights by helping to legalize abortion, was a pioneer in the French government, prison administration, and judicial system, and was the first female president of the European Parliament.
After surviving the war and the Holocaust, it was hard for her to understand how a European country could go to war again, which is why she was dedicated to the goal of uniting Europe, a mission she pursued until the end of her life.
Despite her great successes, her life was full of struggle and suffering.
Simone Veil was born in Nice on July 13, 1927, into a Jewish family originally from the Lorraine region. She lived and was educated in Nice, where she finished high school. Just two days after graduation, the Germans arrested her and deported her, along with one of her sisters and her mother, to Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen. Only the sisters survived the concentration camps, and they were liberated in January 1945. Her sister, Denise Veil, who joined the French Resistance at the beginning of the war, was arrested and deported to Ravensbrück as a member of the resistance, not as a Jew.
After the war, Simone Veil was active in the French government as the Minister of Health during the presidency of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. She successfully presented and argued for the law that decriminalized abortion in France.
Today, 48 years after her address to the Parliament, we can see the significance of her struggle and courage in her passionate speech at the time: “I apologize for doing this before an assembly composed almost entirely of men. No woman resorts to abortion carelessly.”
It was a battle that brought her fierce criticism from the far right. The most vile comments even compared the legalization of abortion to the Holocaust. Anonymous attacks included swastikas painted on her car and the elevator in her building, as well as letters that disturbed her family. Around the same time, the Parliament also voted to ban laboratory experiments on animals for commercial purposes. During the debate on this issue, some members openly compared what they called the genocide of animals to the “genocide” of babies and the genocide at Auschwitz. The worst comment she remembered from that time was made by Jean-Marie Daillet, a member of Parliament, who asked if she would agree to the idea of throwing embryos into the crematorium ovens. However, at the same time, and in the years that followed, many others honored her, approached her even on the street to thank her and tell her that she would never be forgotten for all she had done. During her public addresses, she particularly mentioned the example of a man who approached her in a store near her home and said that “her” law also meant great progress for men.
Simone Veil’s numerous contributions to French society are significant.
While working in the Ministry of Justice, which included the National Prison Administration, she discovered that, although female prisoners did not cause significant disciplinary problems, their detention conditions were very rigid. Thus, during her tenure in that position, she worked to improve their treatment and managed to regroup Algerian female prisoners and enable them to continue their education. In 1964, she became the Director of Civil Affairs, a position that allowed her to have a direct impact on the general rights and status of French women. Among her achievements in this role were dual parental control over family legal matters, rights for single mothers and their children in cases where the father was unidentified, and adoption rights for women. While in the Ministry of Health, she also fought to end various forms of discrimination against women, striving to help women care for their families in other ways. For example, she managed to expand health insurance, monthly child care allowances, maternity benefits, etc.
She left the Ministry of Health in 1979 to run in the first European parliamentary elections with direct voting rights, becoming the first female president of the European Parliament. After that, she held numerous responsible positions very successfully and was very proud of being a pioneer in so many things, but she placed special importance on the fact that, as a Holocaust survivor, she presided over the European Parliament.
In her first speech before this body, she reflected on the past that had destroyed her family and nearly destroyed Europe: “This is the first time in history, a history in which we have so often been divided, opposed to each other, bent on mutual destruction, that the people of Europe have chosen their delegates together in a common assembly representing more than 260 million people in this Chamber today.”
Today, more than 40 years after her address to the European Parliament, when we look at Europe, we can conclude that former enemies are now the strongest pillars of the European Union, which, as Simone Veil said, is a great support for democracy worldwide.
In November 2008, Veil was elected to the French Academy, becoming only the sixth woman to join the “Immortals.” In 2012, she was awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor. Simone Veil passed away on June 30, 2017. The decision to bury her remains in the Pantheon was made in record time; she is the fifth woman to be buried there, placed in the same section of the crypt as other great defenders of freedom (Jean Moulin, André Malraux, René Cassin, and Jean Monnet).