Anna Göldi (also Göldin or Goeldin, 24 October 1734 – 13 June 1782)[1][2] was an 18th-century Swiss housemaid who was one of the last persons to be executed for witchcraft in Europe.

[4] Göldi's baby died the night it was born (something not uncommon due to the high infant mortality of the era).

[5] Anna Göldi filed a complaint against her employer for sexual harassment (and possibly rape) with the cantonal religious and judicial authorities,[6] among whose officials was a member of the Tschudi family.

[5] Following this, Jakob Tschudi reported her for having put needles in the bread and milk of one of his daughters, apparently through supernatural means.

[4] Göldi, at first, escaped arrest, but the authorities of the Canton of Glarus advertised a reward for her capture in the Zürcher Zeitung on 9 February 1782.

Fritz Schiesser, as the representative for Glarus in the Swiss parliament, called for Anna Göldi's exoneration, which was granted 226 years after her death, on 27 August 2008 on the grounds that she had been subjected to an "illegal trial".

The memorial, consisting of 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 Göldi's story.