PARIS —Auschwitz survivor and former President of the European Parliament Simone Veil was laid to rest in the Pantheon in Paris on Sunday as France paid a national tribute to one of his greatest citizens.
Veil died a year ago aged 89. She was buried with her husband in the crypt of the Pantheon mausoleum alongside other national icons including authors Emile Zola and Victor Hugo.
Hundreds of people lined the streets in central Paris to watch the cortege carrying the caskets of Simone and her husband pass by.
French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a speech in which he said : ‘’France loves Simone Veil and loves her for her struggles.”
“We wanted Simone Veil to enter the Pantheon without waiting for generations to pass so that her battles, her dignity and her hope remain a compass in these troubled times.”
Two former presidents, Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy attended the ceremony.
Simone Veil survived the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she was deported at the age of 16, and Bergen-Belsen with the prisoner number 78651 tattooed on her arm. Sunday’s ceremony gave a great place to remember her tragedy in the Holocaust where she lost her parents and her brother in deportation.
After the war, as she entered politics, she became a fervent European and fighter for civil liberties, becoming the first elected president of the European Parliament in 1079.
“The Republic wanted to show its admiration for this extraordinary destiny. France wanted to honor a great servant of the State, but also a convinced European, and especially the survivor of Auschwitz, who transmitted relentlessly his testimony to all French always insisting on the absolute duty of memory and vigilance,” Philippe Meyer, President of B’nai B’rith France, who attended the ceremony, told European Jewish Press.
From Simone Veil, the French also remember her fight for women’s rights. Its fame and popularity owe much to its struggle as Health Minister to pass in 1975 the law on abortion, despite the opposition of a large part of the right.
A square and a metro station in Paris will be renamed to honor the memory of Simone Veil.