Simone Veil. My sisters and I exhibition

Simone Veil. My sisters and I dives into the heart of the intimacy of the Jacob siblings, whose destiny was upset by the war. We discover a smiling and carefree Simone Veil, far from the frozen representations of the stateswoman.

Designed by David Teboul and inspired by the eponymous book and film he made, the exhibition extends the work of the author around memory and transmission. It is based on excerpts from correspondence, diaries and stories and reveals photographs from the archives of the Jacob and Vernay families.

The three sisters Jacob, Madeleine (known as Milou), Denise and Simone grow up in Nice, in the 1920s, within a French Jewish family. Their happy childhood is gradually disrupted by the economic and political crises of the 1930s, then by the Occupation and the antisemitic persecutions.

Denise engages in the Resistance and will be deported to Ravensbrück. Simone, Milou, Jean and their mother Yvonne are arrested. The three women are deported to Auschwitz in the spring of 1944. Yvonne dies at Bergen-Belsen; Milou returns weakened, Simone survives. Their father André and their brother Jean, deported in 1944 by convoy 73, will not return.

BiographieS of the family Jacob 

Through the writings and photographs preserved by the family, the interviews conducted by David Teboul, and the voices of the actresses Isabelle Huppert, Marina Fois and Dominique Reymond, the exhibition retraces the journey of the Jacob sisters, from carefree Niçoise to post-war reconstruction.war.

These personal archives shed light on the experience of the Shoah through the eyes of young women and question the way in which intimate memory and collective history are woven.

© Veil and Vernay family archives

Tribute to Jean Jacob: his photographs exhibited for the first time 

The exhibition also pays tribute to Jean Jacob, passionate about photography.

In 1942, he worked briefly in a photo laboratory before being deported, in 1944, with his father, in the only French convoy to the Baltic countries, where he was assassinated.

His sisters will only learn of the circumstances in 1978. Several of his photographs, carefully preserved by the family, are presented here for the first time.

The Jacob sisters of Marie Desplechin and Fred Bernard

In Citizen Kane, Orson Welles traces the life of a press magnate who, on his deathbed, utters a single enigmatic word: «rosebud». It will be discovered that he thus named his child’s sled. The «rosebud», the secret, of Simone Veil is the trio – or rather «the double duo», as Denise Vernay writes, which linked Milou and Denise and Milou and Simone. Milou had been deported to Auschwitz with Simone and their mother, Yvonne. A few months after having made a film and written Simone and her sisters, I wanted Marie Desplechin to adapt my story. Only Marie could hear and interpret with accuracy and heart the painful, overwhelming story of the Jacob sisters and write this magnificent scenario. Although I read few comic strips, I loved the work of the illustrator Fred Bernard on Robert Badinter’s grandmother, Idiss, then his beautiful adaptation of La Vie secrète des arbres. I love her elegant drawing and the subtle and tender pen of Marie Desplechin. Our editor Laurent Muller and I knew this successful casting. What luck for the Jacob sisters! – David Teboul

Marie Desplechin accompanies the exhibition of the original comic strips with a text about Gilda and Pierre Gejdygier, her husband’s father and aunt, to whom she dedicated this album. The Jacob sisters of Marie Despleschin and Fred Bernard. Éditions Les Arènes BD, 2025.

Director and photographer, David Teboul is the author of the documentary Simone Veil, une histoire française and the book Simone Veil, Mes sœurs et moi. His work explores memory and transmission through personal narratives.

questions to David Teboul, curator of the exhibition 

BOOK SIMONE VEIL. MY SISTERS AND I

The exhibition is accompanied by the publication of the book Simone Veil. My sisters and I (Éditions Les Arènes, 380 pages, February 5, 2026). 

The most complete visual sum ever published. 

This book offers an exceptional visual immersion in the largest archive ever gathered on Simone Veil. The radically contemporary and sensitive layout highlights more than 1,400 documents: archival photographs, objects, family albums, unpublished letters, personal images never published... Thanks to the exceptional assistance of the Shoah Memorial, partner of the work, this iconographic treasure comes alive before our eyes.

On sale at the Shoah Memorial bookstore 

PRESS CONTACT

Ingrid Cadoret | C La Vie – The Agency

ingrid@c-la-vie.fr | +33 6 88 89 17 72

Ninon France | C La Vie – The Agency

ninon.france@c-la-vie.fr | +33 6 19 95 85 68

Download the press kit