A Life

A Memoir by Simone Veil
By Simone Veil. Translated by Tamsin Black.

Veil, a former French politician, was born Simone Jacob in 1927. In her long-awaited memoir, she describes in vivid detail a time of happiness and innocence spent in Nice where she grew up. This idyllic childhood came to an abrupt end in 1944, when her family was deported to the concentration camps. Veil survived Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen, but her mother, father and brother all died in captivity.

With undeterred resolve, she studied law and political science and became Minister for Health (1974 - 1979) in the government of Jacques Chirac, where she fought to legalize abortion. She was elected the first President of the European Parliament (1979 - 1985) and later returned to domestic government as Minister for Social Affairs, a position she held until 1995.

In 1998 she received an honorary damehood (DBE) for her contributions to humanity and was elected to the French Academy in November 2008.

Veil, one of France's most beloved political figures, is admired for her personal courage and enjoys respect from all parts of the political spectrum. Her memoir is a sincere and candid account of an extraordinary life and career, reflecting her humanity and determination to improve social standards in France and maintain economical and political stability in Europe.

'This is a riveting memoir by an extraordinary woman.  With exemplary forthrightness, Simone Veil charts her trajectory from her pre-war childhood in a secular Jewish family in Nice, through the misery of her year in Auschwitz and into the cut and thrust of French and European politics.  This document of a life is also a compact history of post-war France.'

Lisa Appignanesi

'The life story is a debased genre, but occasionally someone writes one who actually has something to say. Simone Veil is one of those....  the small publishing firm Haus is to be congratulated on making available in English this account of a great Frenchwoman's life.'

Read the full review here.

Denis McShane, The Observer

Review from The JC (Jewish Chronicle), 18 December 2009:
Simone Veil is probably best-known in France for having guided into being the 1975 law legalising abortion...30 years later, thi monumental achievement remains controversial in some circles...shamefully, the head of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, in a letter to the Polish President in 2005 opposing her presence at the 60th anniversary commemorations of the liberation of Auschwitz, said that Veil 'was to be held responsible for a mass-murder of human life far exceeding' that of the Nazis. 

- Natasha Lehrer on A Life by Simone Veil.

For additional reviews follow these links:

• Max Dunbar, on WordPress
• John Lichfield, in The Independent