French politician and Holocaust survivor Simone Veil, 89

Simone Veil, a survivor of the Nazi death camps and prominent proponent of Europe’s integration, has died at the age of 89.

One of France’s most widely respected politicians on both sides of the political spectrum, she was a centrist who was president of the European Parliament and a French cabinet minister.

Ms Veil said it was her experiences in the Nazi concentration camps that made her a firm believer in the unification of Europe.

She was an avowed feminist, and France’s abortion rights law is still known four decades later as the “Loi Veil”.

She saw herself as an advocate for the downtrodden and devoted much of her early career to improving conditions in French prisons.

Later, she became one of the most visible faces of France’s dwindling community of Holocaust survivors and spoke passionately about the need to keep the memory alive.

Born Simone Jacob in Nice on July 13 1927, she was one of four children.

Her father worked as an architect until a 1941 law by France’s Vichy government forced him out of the profession.

In March 1944, the Gestapo arrested and deported her, her parents and all but one of her siblings.

Ms Veil, who was 16 at the time, her sister and mother were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where her mother died. Her father and brother were sent to a camp in a Baltic country. They were never seen again.

On her return, she studied law and became a judge in France’s department of corrections, where she fought to improve prison conditions.

In 1974, president Valery Giscard d’Estaing appointed her health minister, which thrust her into the centre of the fight over the legalisation of abortion.

She served as health minister again from 1993 to 1995, under prime minister Edouard Balladur.

She served as president of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1982 and remained in parliament until 1993.

Simone Veil.