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In spite of all the films, memoirs and novels about the Holocaust, it remains an absolutely specific and totally inaccessible Phenomenon. In this long-awaited memoir, Simone Veil describes in vivid detail how her idyllic childhood came to an abrupt end in 1944, when her family was deported to the concentration camps. Veil survived Auschwitz–Birkenau and Bergen–Belsen, but her mother, father, and brother all died in captivity. With undeterred resolve, Simone Veil went on to study law and political science. She later became the minister of health in France, where she fought to legalize abortion, prompting the head of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada to criticize Veil's presence at the sixtieth anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation, writing that she was to be held responsible for a mass murder of human life far exceeding that of the German National Socialists by legalizing and promoting abortion. Simone Veil was elected the first president of the European Parliament in 1979 and later returned to French politics as minister for social affairs. Admired across the world for her personal courage, she has written a sincere and candid account of an extraordinary life, reflecting her humanity and determination to improve political stability and social standards in France and across Europe.