Nata nel 1927 a Nizza da una storica famiglia ebraica, la Veil fu deportata ad Auschwitz nel 1944

(AP Photo/Philippe Wopjazer)

Simone Veil, dressed in the French Academician’s uniform of a black jacket embroidered in green laurel leaves, delivers her speech at the Institut de France in Paris Thursday March 18, 2010. The name of Simone Veil, now 82, is synonymous with the battle that she spearheaded to legalize abortion in France. She has twice served as minister, for health and social affairs, and became the first woman president of the European Parliament. Veil, a French political icon who survived Nazi death camps and went on to become a moral figurehead for France, was inducted Thursday into the Academie Francaise, the sixth woman to cross the portals of the centuries-old institution. Atop center is Jean d’Ormesson , and at right top Helene Carrere d’Encausse.