Swiss Town Unveils Memorial for ‘Witch’ It Executed — 232 Years Later
The Swiss town that ordered Europe’s last execution for witchcraft will unveil a memorial for the woman beheaded more than 200 years ago, accused of bewitching a child.
Servant Anna Goeldi was denounced as a witch after her employer’s eight-year-old daughter fell ill and began spitting up pins during fits of coughing, according to documents in the local archives.
Authorities in Glarus, central Switzerland, became convinced Goeldi was a witch after she later appeared to cure the child using supernatural powers.
After saying under torture that she had been aided by the devil, Goeldi was sentenced to death and beheaded with a sword in 1782, a time when intellectuals were championing reason over tradition and long after witch trials in other countries, such as Britain, had petered out.
“It sent shockwaves through the whole of Europe, with people writing it was unbelievable there were communities in Switzerland where people still believed in witches,” said Walter Hauser, an author of a book about Goeldi.
Goeldi, who was 48 at the time of her death, was exonerated by the Glarus parliament in 2008.
The memorial, comprising two permanently lit lamps on the side of the Glarus court house, is intended to draw attention to violations of human rights that occur in the world today, as well as Goeldi’s story, Hauser said.
“The memorial is an expression of atonement for the injustice that took place here,” he said. “It will be an eternal light for Anna Goeldi.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
