Arkivet (Kristiansand)

Arkivet (meaning the Archive) is the established name of Vesterveien 4 in Kristiansand, Norway. 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 departement of the National Archives.

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

From the "House of horror" as Arkivet was nicknamed, Kerner himself and five other Gestapo officers in addition to Norwegian collaborationists including Ole Wehus 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.

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