Holocaust survivor and women’s rights icon Simone Veil will be inducted into France’s famed Panthéon mausoleum, the final resting place of those who have made significant contributions to French society, reports FRANCE 24.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced the decision on Wednesday, saying that, in accordance with her family’s wishes, Veil will be laid to rest under the Panthéon’s great dome along with her husband, Antoine.
Veil’s family had earlier said that they were honoured by suggestions that she might enter the Panthéon, but did not want Veil to be separated from her spouse in her final resting place.
In an interview with Europe 1 this week, Deborah Veil said it was “extremely touching” that her grandmother might be inducted. But she added that her grandparents “would not be happy to be separated after sharing their lives together for 65 years”.
Those concerns have now been laid to rest.
Following Veil’s death on June 30, online petitions began circulating calling for her to be honoured by the Panthéon. In the five days since her death, "The Panthéon for Simone Veil" petition has garnered more than 152,700 signatures. Famous French personalities and thousands of Internet users joined forces asking for her to take her place in the famed Paris tomb reserved for France’s "Great Men" – notably Rousseau and Voltaire – and four women, including Marie Curie.
Historian Patrick Garcia, professor at the University of Cergy-Pontoise and an associate researcher at the Institute of History, said he was not at all surprised by these calls. For him, the survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau and popular former health minister is a perfect candidate.
“There is no ‘checklist’ for entering the Panthéon, but there are informal criteria,” he told FRANCE 24. “That is to say, [inductees] embody the ideals and battles for the Republic that still have meaning today. Simone Veil embodies these values.”