Kristiansand State Archive
In January 1942, SIPO (Security Police) and Gestapo moved their headquarters from Östra Strandgatan 5 in central Kristiansand to Kristiansand’s state archives just outside the city center. The head of SIPO and Gestapo was Hauptsturmführer Rudolf Kerner. During the war, about 3,500 Norwegian citizens suspected of anti-German activities were imprisoned. In the basement, several prison cells were set up and prisoners were tortured and beaten to forced out consent and confessions. About 160 prisoners who ended up in the Gestapo’s clutches were executed or sent to concentration camps where they were murdered.
Current status: Preserved with museum (2017).
Address: Vesterveien 4, 4616 Kristiansand.
Get there: Bus or walk from central Kristiansand.
Follow up in books: Höhne, Heinz: The Order of the Death’s Head: The story of Hitler’s SS (1969).
The archive is preserved and there is an exhibition in the basement where two cells have been reconstructed. The exhibition focus on the local events during the war and provides a good overview of it’s history. Interestingly, the exhibition gives a lot of space to the criminals, and not only to Rudolf Kerner, but also to several other German officers who served in the archive.