Sven Arntzen

Sven Arntzen (4 April 1897 – 27 November 1976) was a Norwegian barrister. He was also the acting director general of the Norwegian Prosecuting Authority from 1945 to 1946, and played an important role in the legal purge in Norway after World War II.

Pre-war life He was born in Kristiania as the son of banker Per Arntzen (1864–1924) and his wife Aasta Høst (1869–1945), He was a distant descendant of Andreas Arntzen. He took the cand.jur. degree with excellent grades in 1920, and then worked as a deputy judge. From 1922 to 1924 he studied in France. He then settled in Kristiania/Oslo as a lawyer, and gained access to Supreme Court cases in 1927. He also worked with law candidates at the University of Oslo, and was a prominent member of the Norwegian Bar Association.

World War II In 1940 Norway was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany. Arntzen worked to spread resistance to the occupation throughout his profession. In 1942 he was recruited by Haakon Sund as a police organizer within the Norwegian resistance movement. Arntzen became a member of Milorg's military council and Hjemmefrontens Ledelse. From May 1944 to September 1944 he was incarcerated at Bredtveit prison. The authorities not being aware of his association with Milorg and Hjemmefrontens Ledelse, he was then released from prison, only to continue his resistance work. He helped plan the situation which would follow the German defeat in World War II.

Arntzen chaired the Norwegian Bar Association from 1959 to 1961, as well as Storebrand and Norsk Jernverk. He received the King's Medal for Courage, the Norwegian Defence Medal and was decorated as a Commander with Star of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav.

In 1922 he married Ellinor Bergfeldt (1897–1983). He died on 27 November 1976 at the age of 79 of heart failure in Aix-en-Provence, and was buried at Vestre gravlund.