A Jewish woman who was one of the few Italian children to survive deportation to a Nazi death camp has been made a senator-for-life in Italy. President Sergio Mattarella's office said Friday that he chose Liliana Segre, 87, for the honor because she had made the nation proud with her commitment to telling schoolchildren about the Holocaust.

Italy is marking 80 years since the country introduced Fascist-era racist laws discriminating against Jews. Segre and her family went into hiding after the 1938 law was introduced. They were arrested in 1943, and put onto trains departing from Milan toward Nazi-run deportation camps. Only 25 of 775 Italian children survived the Nazi death camps.