Simone Veil, a former French politician, was born Simone Jacob in 1927. She was deported with her family to the concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen, her mother, father and brother all dying in captivity. After the war she studied law and political science and became Minister for Health (1974-1979) in the government of Jacques Chirac, where she fought to legalise 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. She was elected to the French Academy in November 2008.