As Adolf Hitler came into power, he created a number of different establishments and organisations
to help him solidify his control over the people of Germany.
One of the most brutal and infamous groups established was the Gestapo, the official
Secret Police of Nazi Germany.
It was initially created by Hermann Goring, but it became an incredibly feared police
force and they administered brutal executions, torture and deported thousands of people to
the concentration and extermination camps where they were then killed.
After the end of the Second World War, the Gestapo was declared as a criminal organisation
at the Nuremberg Trials, and many former members of it were sentenced to death.
The Gestapo established headquarters in occupied lands, but in Norway there was one base referred
to as The House of Horrors for the evil treatment that occurred there.
Join us today as we look at the Horrific Torture Of The Gestapo House of Horrors.
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The Arkivet or Archive which today is found in Kristiansand in Norway has a darker history
than the records storage facility suggests.
Today it’s known as the Arkivet Peace and Human Rights centre, but during the Second
World War it was the Gestapo Headquarters established inside of Norway.
Within the walls there was a huge amount of torture and suffering which occurred with
the Gestapo agents brutalising the prisoners for information.
Norway began to be occupied by Nazi Germany on the 9th April 1940, and armed resistance
ended months later in June 1940, but from this time until the end of the war, Norway
was occupied by the Wehrmacht.
Rule was assumed by the Reich Commissariat of Norway, and worked in collaboration with
a pro-German puppet government, called the Quisling regime.
The Norwegian King at the time fled to London and formed a government in exile, but the
Nazis sought to impose their rules and persecution onto the people of Norway.
They began to round up and arrest a number of jews who were sent to concentration camps,
and a number were sent towards Germany where they were exterminated in camps, or killed
by the horrendous conditions.
The gestapo would round these men, women and children up alongside the SS who maintained
a strength of around 6000 officers and soldiers during the Second World War.
But during the Second World War, Kristansand was attacked by sea from the German Navy and
also by the Luftwaffe who dropped bombs.
The naval forces were met by fierce resistance on the coast, but there was fighting inside
of the city, and later the city was occupied by a garrison of around 800 German soldiers.
But inside the city, the Gestapo established a headquarters, and inside of this building
there was great suffering and pain.
The Germans occupied the building on the 10th April 1940, and for the first two years of
occupation it was the German Air Defence soldiers who used the building, however from 1942 to
1945 the Gestapo then took control of the house and started to use it as their regional
base, and the locals referred to it as the House of Horror.
When the Gestapo took over, Rudolf Kerner was the Head of the German Secret Police in
Kritsiansand, and around 3000 German officers came to Norway int he war, and worked for
the Gestapo.
The building was not a prison during the war, but was a police station for the German police.
Cells and torture chambers were set up there, and each day detainees from all over the area
were taken there for questioning.
They could stay for a few hours, or even weeks on end depending on how much information they
gave over.
Some Norwegians turned over to the enemy and helped administer the torture, and also helped
the Germans with regards to translation.
One man, Ole Wehus was regarded as one of the most dangerous informants in Norway, and
he was later accused of treason for his involvement.
He said, ‘I am 100% sure that everyone who was employed at the Arkivet during the war
somehow had to know what was going on, because sooner or later they could not avoid seeing
the prisoners after they had been treated.’
The Norwegian workers worked inside and knew about the abuse and torture of the prisoners,
but Ole Wehus was sentenced to death for his crimes and very few of the torturers were
executed for their crimes.
But during the years of the war, more than 3500 people were imprisoned in the building
for more than four days, and the Gestapo’s headquarters became a symbol of hatred, torture,
suffering and evil treatment inside of southern Norway.
It became known as the House of Horrors or the Stronghold of Torture as the prisoners
would suffer greatly.
Prisoners were subject to very intense interrogations, and the Gestapo even forced people to conduct
physical exercises which were very tough also.
Inside of the Arkivet building, or the Gestapo headquarters 311 Norwegian men and women were
tortured.
The oldest person tortured was 67 and the youngest was just 16, and the majority were
believed to have been involved in resistance.
Also a number of Soviet prisoners of war were tortured there also, and many were later executed.
Four women were tortured there, and one woman named Henriette Lorentzen was pregnant when
she was arrested.
She was examined by a German doctor who said she was 4 months pregnant before she was tortured.
The Gestapo placed a pillow under her stomach before they began to beat her and hit her,
but she did give birth to the child who was forced to live with Henriette’s sister whilst
she was sent to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp.
Torture methods which were used by the Gestapo were very varied, but most involved prisoners
being beaten.
They used any weapons they could get their hands on, for example victims were tied by
the arms and legs and were then beaten.
They were whipped and also handcuffed, and the torturers targeted the vital organs of
the prisoners, and many suffered with their ordeal for the rest of their lives.
A number of prisoners were also forced to stand for hours with their hands above their
head and if they moved they were beaten worse.
There was one prisoner who succumbed to his torture ordeal.
A local doctor treated prisoner Pal Eiken and he said, ‘I treated Eiken the night
before he died.
He was admitted to the hospital by a German doctor with the diagnosis of Asthma.
However there were no signs of this disease.
Eiken suffered from kidney illness and a high degree of uremia.
The patient was unconscious a couple of hours before he died.
He himself informed that he was constantly exposed to abuse during the interrogations.
He was made to lie on his stomach over a chair while two Germans beat him with clubs on his
back and behind during the interrogations.
He was also kicked by the Germans in the stomach, behind, and genitals.
Eiken had obvious marks from these abuses.
The skin on his behind, the lower part of his back and stomach, and the genitals were
blue-black in colour, and there were some surface grazing.
[…]" Pal Eiken was the only one to die specifically from the injuries he got specifically during
torture and the time of torture, but a number later did die in captivity because of their
injuries sustained there.
Prisoners were tortured with blows to the face, blows to the black with rubber truncheons
or clubs, beaten with wire, sticks or whips and were forced into leg clamps, and even
heated very warm.
Also as mentioned there were at least 34 Soviet prisoners transferred to the building, and
they came from a number of work camps.
The prisoners were treated terribly, and they had been sent to the gestapo hq for punishment.
Around 50 soviet POWs were executed by the Gestapo at the centre, and after the war none
of the executioners or the Gestapo agents were executed for these murders, as there
was allegedly a lack of evidence.
But the Gestapo themselves after the war were made to exhume the bodies of these prisoners.
Many other prisoners following their torture were then transported to other concentration
camps.
A couple of prisoners were then sent to other camps, and some of these were transported
on German ships which were then hit by a naval mine.
Most of the casualties of the sinking of the SS Westfalen were Norwegian prisoners of war,
including the men who were tortured at the house of horrors.
Some also died on transport to camps closer to the heart of the third reich whilst they
were being taken back towards Germany as the war was turning against the Germans.
Many of those who were transported to the camp were political leaders in the local area,
and the Gestapo sought to silence them.
The House of Horrors was the secret Gestapo headquarters in Norway in Kristiansand which
struck fear into the hearts of the locals around the area.
They heard of the torture and killing inside the building, and they were very worried about
the Gestapo agents.
The secret police operated in such a way which was very intimidating, and they encouraged
local people to inform on others.
The House of Horrors was a brutal and terrifying place in which a number of local leaders were
tortured, and it was a place where execution also occurred.
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