Simone Veil. Mes sœurs et moi

How can we approach Simone Veil by a path other than the now familiar one of the stateswoman? How can we restore the innocence of a childhood in Nice brutally interrupted by the Occupation and deportation?

The exhibition Simone Veil. Mes sœurs et moi, conceived by director and photographer David Teboul, focuses on bringing to light the intimate history of the Jacob family.

Through a collection of documents — correspondence, photographs, interviews — visitors discover the deep relationship that united Madeleine (Milou), Denise, and Simone before, during, and after the war. An intimate dimension rarely highlighted.

The archives presented allow us to read and hear the words and voices of the Jacob sisters as they recount their childhood in Nice, Denise's involvement in the Resistance, the arrest of Simone, Milou, and their mother Yvonne in spring 1944, the deportation, the separations, the losses, and then the post-war period, until Madeleine's death in 1952.

Particular attention is paid to their younger brother Jean, an aspiring photographer, with the exhibition of several of his images, which long remained within the family circle. Jean Jacob was deported with his father in 1944 by convoy 73.

A family story that is both tender and tragic, joining the greater History and bearing witness to the fate of the Jews of France.