Monkhouse Mondays: Europe's Last Witch Hunt

Anna Goeldi, Switzerland – The last witch executed in Europe – rehabilitated

Two-hundred and twenty-five years after the execution of Anna Goeldi, a maid in the then upper classes of a small town in central Switzerland, she was officially rehabilitated by the local government in June 2008. This move is significant and has attracted attention from the whole world. Anna Goeldis case is special, she was not „old and wise“ (one of the definitions for witches in the middle ages) but beautiful and attractive, clever and headstrong, she had affairs with local politicians, the doctor, the mayor, adultery was a crime and they would have lost their jobs, so they tried to get rid of her, she was tortured and beheaded.

This happened in a protestant area (witch-hunting was the craft of the Catholics, the Vatican has not apologised until today), years after the Europe-wide witchhunt was over. After much campaigning and political turmoil, Anna Goeldi was rehabilitated in 2008 (!) as a victim of judicial murder.

Watch a short video here (before the rehabilitiation):


and a newspaper story here.

I leave it to the (female) readers to judge what this story has to do with present times and our own, contemporary lives.

-- Christa Monkhouse