Panthéon

Did you know? Deported to Auschwitz at sixteen, Simone Veil carried the tattooed number 78651 for the rest of her life. In 1974, as France's health minister, she faced an almost entirely male National Assembly to legalize abortion. The debate was venomous — swastikas even appeared on her car. She stayed composed, and passed the law that still bears her name: the "Loi Veil."