Arkivet (meaning ''the

Archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...

'') is the established name of Vesterveien 4 in

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a seaside resort city and municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 112,000 as of January 2020, following the incorporation ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The building was constructed in 1935 for the Archival Services in Kristiansand, and in the periods 1935–1940 and 1945–1997 used by this institution. Nevertheless, the building is known as the headquarters of the Gestapo in southern Norway in the period 1942–1945. The building is owned and operated by the foundation ''Stiftelsen Arkivet''. Arikivet is located in the residential area of Bellevue overlooking the western harbor of Kristiansand. The building in the functionalist style was completed in 1935, and was 8 March of that year officially adopted by the local department of the National Archives. Rudolf Kerner Skrekens hus

Gestapo headquarters

:: See also the incomplete

List of Arkivet prisoners This is a list of prisoners of Arkivet, a political prison and Gestapo Headquarters which was operated in Nazi-occupied Norway. A cross symbol next to a name denotes that the person died during World War II, at Arkivet or elsewhere. See a ...

After Norway was occupied by Nazi Germany in April 1940, the building was taken over by German anti-aircraft troops. In 1941 it was given back to the Norwegian National Archives. A year later, in 1942, the building was requisitioned by the Gestapo, however. Until May 1945 Vesterveien 4 was the Gestapo headquarters in the southern Norway. The SS-Hauptsturmführer and Kriminalkommisar Rudolf Kerner was in charge of the building at Vesterveien 4, from then on known as Arkivet, one of the most notorious Gestapo stations in Norway, feared by the Norwegian resistance fighters. According to figures from Stiftelsen Arkivet were * about 3,500 Norwegians arrested by the Gestapo and detained for several days in Arkivet. * 367 Norwegian men and women roughly tortured here. Several died during or as a result of torture. From the "House of horror" as Arkivet was nicknamed, Kerner himself and five other Gestapo officers in addition to Norwegian collaborationists including

Ole Wehus Ole Wehus (25 June 1909 – 10 March 1947) was a Norwegian police official and member of the fascist party Nasjonal Samling who was sentenced to death and executed in 1947. He was born in Kristiansand. During the occupation of Norway by Nazi Ge ...

were prosecuted and harshly judged during the Legal purge in Norway after World War II. In 1945 the building was again adopted by the Norwegian National Archives. All archival material during the war were brought to safety in Oslo – which was also kept in the silver mines at Kongsberg – and no material was lost while the German occupiers were in possession of the building. The building was once again used by the National Archives until 1997.

Stiftelsen Arkivet

After the National Archives in Kristiansand was moved to a new building in another location, the old building was taken over by the foundation Stiftelsen Arkivet, which conducts education and documentation, research on and outreach on Norwegian occupation history. The ''basement'', where there is a museum furnished, is brought back to the condition it was in the period 1942–1945, with reconstructions of cells, torture chambers and equipment. Among others is the torture scene where

Henriette Bie Lorentzen Henriette Bie Lorentzen (18 July 1911 – 23 August 2001), born Anna Henriette Wegner Haagaas, was a Norwegian journalist, humanist, peace activist, feminist, co-founder of the Nansen Academy, resistance member and concentration camp survivor dur ...

was tortured reconstructed. Arkivet is the only existing, authentic Gestapo headquarters in Norway. The building became an information center about Norway during World War II and education for peace building and conflict resolution. The first floor and upwards of the building is leased to humanitarian organizations as the Red Cross and

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

. The names of 162 Norwegian victims who were killed in concentration camps or executed, are mounted on a monument in front of the building. The building is open to the public.

Wartime sailing research

The foundation received through the Norwegian

government budget A government budget is a document prepared by the government and/or other political entity presenting its anticipated tax revenues (Inheritance tax, income tax, corporation tax, import taxes) and proposed spending/expenditure (Healthcare, Educa ...

for 2016, funds to establish a Norwegian documentation center for wartime sailing history and the operation of a new War Sailor Register. This is a search website for ships, crews and individuals who sailed for Norwegian ships and Norwegians on foreign ships during World War II.War Sailor Register
Krigsseilerregisteret This is a topic that Stftelsen Arkivet has researched around for some time already.

References

Literature in Norwegian

* Taraldsen, Kristen: Arkivet - torturens høyborg. Stiftelsen Arkivet, Kristiansand (2003)

Gestapo headquarters

Stiftelsen Arkivet

Wartime sailing research

References

Literature in Norwegian

External links