Artur Phleps | |
|---|---|
 Phleps in 1942 | |
| Birth name | Artur Gustav Martin Phleps |
| Nickname | Papa Phleps |
| Born | (1881-11-29)29 November 1881 Birthälm, Szeben County, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 21 September 1944(1944-09-21) (aged 62) Șimand, Arad, Romania |
| Allegiance | |
| Branch | |
| Service years | 1900–1944 |
| Rank | SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS (Lieutenant General) |
| Unit | SS Motorised DivisionWiking |
| Commands | |
| Conflicts | |
| Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves |
| Spouse | Grete |
| Children |
|
Artur Gustav Martin Phleps (German pronunciation:[ˈaʁtuːɐ̯ˈɡʊstafˈmaʁtiːnˈflɛps]; 29 November 1881 – 21 September 1944) was anAustro-Hungarian,Romanian andNazi German army officer who held the rank ofSS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS (lieutenant general) in theWaffen-SS duringWorld War II. AnAustro-Hungarian Army officer before and duringWorld War I, Phleps specialised inmountain warfare andlogistics, and had been promoted toOberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel) by the end of the war. During theinterwar period he joined theRomanian Army, reaching the rank ofGeneral de divizie (major general), and also became an adviser toKing Carol. After he spoke out against the government, he was sidelined and asked to be dismissed from the army.
In 1941, he left Romania and joined the Waffen-SS as anSS-Standartenführer (colonel) under his mother's maiden name of Stolz. Seeing action on theEastern Front as a regimental commander with theSS Motorised DivisionWiking, he later raised and commanded the7th SS Volunteer Mountain DivisionPrinz Eugen, raised the13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SSHandschar (1st Croatian), and commanded theV SS Mountain Corps. Units under his command committed many crimes against the civilian population of theIndependent State of Croatia,German-occupied territory of Serbia andItalian governorate of Montenegro.[1][2] His final appointment was as plenipotentiary general in southSiebenbürgen (Transylvania) and theBanat, during which he organised the evacuation of theVolksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) of Siebenbürgen to the Reich. In addition to theKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross, Phleps was awarded theGerman Cross in Gold, and after he was shot and killed in the aftermath of the1944 Romanian coup d'état, he was awarded theOak Leaves to his Knight's Cross.
Phleps was born in what was then called Birthälm (Biertan), near Hermannstadt (Sibiu) in Siebenbürgen, then a part of theAustro-Hungarian Empire (modern-dayTransylvania, Romania).[3] At the time, Siebenbürgen was densely populated byRomanian ethnic Germans, commonly referred to asTransylvanian Saxons. He was the third son of a surgeon, Dr. Gustav Phleps, and Sophie (née Stolz), the daughter of a peasant. Both families had lived in Siebenbürgen for centuries.[4][5] After finishing the LutheranRealschule school in Hermannstadt,[4] Phleps entered theImperial and Royal cadet school in Pressburg (Bratislava in the modern-daySlovak Republic) in 1900, and on 1 November 1901 was commissioned as aLeutnant (lieutenant) in the 3rd Regiment of theTirolerKaiserjäger (Tyrolean mountain infantry of the Kaiser).[3][6]
In 1903, Phleps was transferred to the 11thFeldjäger (rifle) Battalion inGüns (in modern-day Hungary),[3] and in 1905 was accepted into theTheresian Military Academy inWiener Neustadt. He completed his studies in two years, and was endorsed as suitable for service in theGeneral Staff. Following promotion toOberleutnant (first lieutenant) he was transferred to the staff of the 13th Infantry Regiment atEsseg inSlavonia, then to the 6th Infantry Division inGraz. This was followed by a promotion toHauptmann (captain) in 1911, along with a position on the staff of the XVArmy Corps inSarajevo. There, he specialised inmobilisation andcommunications, in the difficult terrain ofBosnia andHerzegovina.[5][6]
At the outbreak ofWorld War I, Phleps was serving with the staff of the 32nd Infantry Division inBudapest. His division was involved in the early stages of theSerbian campaign, during which Phleps was transferred to theoperations staff of the SecondArmy. This Army was soon withdrawn from the Serbian front and deployed via theCarpathian Mountains to the Austro-Hungarian province ofGalicia (modern-dayPoland and Ukraine), to defend against a successful offensive by theRussian Imperial army. The Second Army continued to fight the Russians in and around the Carpathians through the winter of 1914–1915. In 1915 Phleps was again transferred, this time toArmeegruppe Rohr commanded byGeneral der Kavallerie (lieutenant general)Franz Rohr von Denta, which was formed in theAustrian Alps, in response to theItalian declaration of war in May 1915.Armeegruppe Rohr became the basis for the formation of the10th Army, which was headquartered inVillach. Phleps subsequently became the deputyquartermaster of the 10th Army, responsible for organising the supply of the troops fighting the Italians in the mountains.[6][7]
On 1 August 1916, Phleps was promoted tomajor.[3] Later that month, KingFerdinand I of Romania led theKingdom of Romania in joining theTriple Entente, subsequently invading Phleps's homeland of Siebenbürgen. On 27 August, Phleps became the chief of staff of the 72nd Infantry Division, which was involved in Austro-Hungarian operations to repel the Romanian invasion. He remained in this theatre of operations for the next two years, ultimately serving as the chief quartermaster of the German9th Army,[7] and was awarded theIron Cross 2nd Class, on 27 January 1917.[8] In 1918 he returned to the mountains when he was transferred toArmeegruppe Tirol, and ended the war as anOberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel) and chief quartermaster for the entireAlpine front.[6][7]
After the war, the Austro-Hungarian Empirewas dissolved and Phleps returned to his homeland, which had become part of the Kingdom of Romania, officiated later under theTreaty of Trianon. He was appointed as commander of the Saxon National Guard, amilitia which was serving with theRomanian Army and formed of the German-speaking people of Siebenbürgen, in 1918.[9]
On 1 April 1919, he was named chief of staff of the16th Infantry Division [ro], a unit formed from Transylvanian volunteers under the command of a Romanian officer,General de brigadă (brigadier general)Alexandru Hanzu [ro]. In this role, Phleps confronted theHungarian communist revolutionary government ofBéla Kun, whichfought against Romania in 1919. He participated in theCarei-Debrecen offensive, and in the crossing of theTisza, distinguishing himself in the battles for thebridgehead atTokaj and atMiskolc.[9]
On 17 July 1919, he was admitted in the Romanian Army with the rank ofLocotenent-colonel (lieutenant colonel). For his tactical and commanding abilities displayed in the war, he was praised by Generals Hanzu,Mihăescu [ro] andPetala, and was decorated with the Officer's cross of theOrder of the Star of Romania with swords and ribbon ofmilitary virtue. He was also promoted to the rank ofColonel in June 1920.[9] Between 1921 and 1923, he commanded the 84th Infantry Regiment fromBistrița,[10] then joined the general army headquarters and started teachinglogistics at the RomanianWar Academy inBucharest. He attended the V Army Corpsstaff college inBrașov, and published a book titledLogistics: Basics of Organisation and Execution in 1926, which became the standard work on logistics for the Romanian Army.[11][12] Ironically, after the book was published, Phleps failed his first general's examination on the topic of logistics.[13] He commanded various Romanian units, including the 1st Brigade of thevânători de munte (mountain troops), while also serving as a military advisor to KingCarol II in the 1930s.[11][12] Phleps was promoted toGeneral de brigadă (brigadier general) in 1933, and reached the rank ofGeneral de divizie (major general) in 1938,[14] despite his reported disdain for the corruption, intrigue and hypocrisy of the royal court.[15] After criticising the government's policy[16] and publicly calling King Carol a liar when another general tried to twist his words,[17] he was transferred to the reserves in 1940 and finally dismissed from service at his own request in 1941.[6]
In November 1940, with the support of the leader of theVolksgruppe in Rumänien (ethnic Germans in Romania), Andreas Schmidt, Phleps had written to the key Waffen-SS recruiting officerSS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen SS (brigadier)Gottlob Berger offering his services to the Third Reich. He subsequently asked for permission to leave Romania to join theWehrmacht, and this was approved by the recently installed RomanianConducător (leader), thedictator GeneralIon Antonescu.[17] Phleps volunteered for theWaffen-SS instead,[18] enlisting under his mother's maiden name of Stolz.[6] According to the historianHans Bergel, Phleps joined the Waffen-SS becauseVolksdeutsche were not permitted to join theWehrmacht.[19] He was appointed anSS-Standartenführer (colonel) byReichsführer-SSHeinrich Himmler and joined theSS Motorised DivisionWiking,[18] where he commanded Dutch, Flemish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish volunteers.[6] WhenHilmar Wäckerle, the commander of SS-RegimentWestland, was killed in action nearLvov in late June 1941, Phleps took over command of that regiment. He distinguished himself in fighting atKremenchuk andDnipropetrovsk in Ukraine, commanded his ownKampfgruppe,[6] became aconfidant ofGeneralmajor (brigadier)Hans-Valentin Hube, commander of the16th Panzer Division, and was subsequently promoted toSS-Oberführer (senior colonel).[18] In July 1941 he was awarded the 1939 clasp to his Iron Cross (1914) 2nd Class and then the Iron Cross (1939) 1st Class.[8]
On 30 December 1941,Generalfeldmarschall (field marshal)Wilhelm Keitel advised Himmler thatAdolf Hitler had authorised the raising of a seventh Waffen-SS division from theVolksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) of Yugoslavia.[20] In the meantime, Phleps reverted to his birth name from his mother's maiden name. Two weeks later,SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen SS Phleps was selected to organise the new division.[18] On 1 March 1942, the division was officially designated theSS-Freiwilligen-Division "Prinz Eugen".[20] Phleps was promoted toSS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen SS (major general) on 20 April 1942. After recruitment, formation and training in theBanat region in October 1942, the two regiments and supporting arms were deployed into the southwestern part of theGerman-occupied territory of Serbia as an anti-partisan force. Headquartered inKraljevo, with its two mountain infantry regiments centred onUžice andRaška, the division continued its training. Some artillery batteries, the anti-aircraft battalion, the motorcycle battalion and cavalry squadron continued to form in the Banat.[21] During his time with the 7th SS Division, Phleps was referred to as "Papa Phleps" by his troops.[22]
In early October 1942, the division commencedOperation Kopaonik, targeting theChetnik force of MajorDragutin Keserović in theKopaonik Mountains. The operation ended with little success, since the Chetniks had forewarning of the operation and were able to avoid contact. After a quiet winter, in January 1943 Phleps deployed the division to theIndependent State of Croatia (NDH) to participate inCase White.[23] Between 13 February and 9 March 1943 he was responsible for the initial aspects of raising the13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SSHandschar (1st Croatian) in the NDH in addition to his duties commanding the 7th SS Division.[24]In his strongly apologetic history of the division which he later commanded,[25]Otto Kumm claims that the 7th SS Division capturedBihać andBosanski Petrovac, killed over 2,000 partisans and captured nearly 400 during Case White.[26] After a short rest and refit in April, the division was committed toCase Black in May and June 1943, during which it advanced from theMostar area into theItalian governorate of Montenegro killing, according to Kumm, 250 partisans and capturing over 500.[27] The historian Thomas Casagrande notes that all German units fighting partisans routinely counted the uninvolved civilians they murdered as partisans, so that the reported number of inflicted casualties is likely to have included many civilians.[28] The division played a decisive role during the fighting. Although Himmler had already planned to award Phleps theKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his role in organising the 7th SS Division, it was for the achievements of his division during Case Black that Phleps received the award. Phleps was also portrayed in the SS-magazineDas Schwarze Korps.[28] He was awarded the Knight's Cross in July 1943,[29] and was promoted toObergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS (lieutenant general),[3] and placed in command of theV SS Mountain Corps.[30]
In May 1943, Phleps became frustrated by the failure of his Italian allies to cooperate with German operations, which was demonstrated in his reputation for forthright speech. During a meeting with his Italian counterpart inPodgorica, Montenegro, Phleps called the Italian corps commander GeneralErcole Roncaglia a "lazy macaroni".[31] Phleps scolded hisWehrmacht interpreter,LeutnantKurt Waldheim for toning down his language, saying "Listen Waldheim, I know some Italian and you are not translating what I am telling this so-and-so".[31] On another occasion, he threatened to shoot Italian sentries who were delaying his passage through a checkpoint.[32] On 15 May 1943, Phleps handed over command of the division toSS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen SSKarl von Oberkamp.[33]
While under Phleps's command, the division committed many crimes against the civilian population of the NDH, especially during Case White and Case Black.[34] These included "burning villages, massacre of inhabitants, torture and murder of captured partisans", earning the division a distinctive reputation for cruelty.[22] These charges have been denied by Kumm, among others. Still, the divisional orders routinely called for the annihilation of hostile civilian population, and Waffen-SS documents show that these orders were regularly carried out. For example, Himmler's police representative in the NDH,SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der PolizeiKonstantin Kammerhofer, reported on 15 July 1943 that units of the 7th SS Division had shot the Muslim population ofKosutica, about 40 men, women, and children gathered in a "church". The division claimed that "bandits" in the village had opened fire, but the police could not discover any traces of combat. Such incidents, which jeopardized the plan to raise a Muslim SS division, led to a dispute between Kammerhofer and Phleps's successor Oberkamp. Himmler ordered Phleps to intervene, and he reported on 7 September 1943 that he could not discover anything wrong with the shootings in Kosutica and that Kammerhofer and Oberkamp had resolved their dispute.[35] The war crimes committed by the 7th SS Division became the subject of international controversy when Waldheim's service in the Balkans became public in the mid-1980s, during his successful bid for theAustrian presidency.[36]
The formations under the command of V SS Mountain Corps varied during Phlep's command. In July 1944, it consisted of the118th Jäger Division and369th (Croatian) Infantry Division in addition to the 7th SS and 13th SS divisions. Throughout Phlep's command, the corps was under the overall control of2nd Panzer Army, and conducted anti-partisan operations throughout the NDH and Montenegro.[37] These operations included Operations"Kugelblitz" (ball lightning) and"Schneesturm" (blizzard), which were part of a major offensive in eastern Bosnia in December 1943, but they were only a limited success.[38] Phleps had met personally with Hitler to discuss the planning for Operation"Kugelblitz".[39]
Due to the unreliable nature of the troops loyal to the NDH government, Phleps utilised Chetnik forces as auxiliaries, stating to a visiting officer that he could not disarm the Chetniks unless the NDH government provided him with the same strength in reliable troops.[40] In January 1944, due to fears that theWestern Allies would invade along theDalmatian coastline and islands, V SS Mountain Corps forced the mass evacuation of male civilians between the ages of 17 and 50 from that area. Phleps was criticised by both NDH and German authorities for the harshness with which the evacuation was carried out.[41] During the first six months of 1944, elements of the V SS Mountain Corps were involved in Operation"Waldrausch" (Forest Fever) in central Bosnia,[42]Operation "Maibaum" (Maypole) in eastern Bosnia,[43] andOperation "Rösselsprung" (Knight's Move), the attempt to capture or kill the partisan leaderJosip Broz Tito.[44]
On 20 June 1944, Phleps was awarded theGerman Cross in gold.[8] In September, he was appointedplenipotentiary general of German occupation troops in South Transylvania and theBanat, organising the flight of theVolksdeutsche of North Transylvania ahead of the advancing SovietRed Army.[45]
Following theRomanian coup d'état of 23 August 1944 which deposed Antonescu, Phleps and his entourage were en route to a meeting with Himmler in Berlin. He made a detour to reconnoitre the situation nearArad, Romania, after receiving reports of Soviet advances in that area. Accompanied only by his adjutant and his driver, and unaware of the presence of Red Army units in the vicinity, he enteredȘimand, a village approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of Arad, on the afternoon of 21 September 1944. Soviet forces were already in the village, and Phleps and his men were captured and brought in for interrogation. When the building in which they were held was attacked by German aircraft later that afternoon, the prisoners tried to escape and were shot by their guards.[46] Bergel suspects that Phleps had been set up by Hungarian army officers who had found out that he knew of plans for Hungary to switch sides as Romania had done shortly before.[47] Phleps's personal effects, including his identity card, tags and decorations, were found by a Hungarian patrol and handed over to German authorities on 29 September 1944. Phleps had been listed as missing in action since 22 September 1944 when he did not show up for his meeting with Himmler, who issued a warrant for his arrest on suspicion of treason.[48][49]
Phleps was posthumously awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross on 24 November 1944,[50] which was presented to his son,SS-Obersturmführer (first lieutenant) Dr.med. Reinhart Phleps,[51] a battalion doctor serving in the 7th SS Division.[52][53] Soon after his death, the 13thGebirgsjäger Regiment of the 7th SS Division was given thecuff titleArtur Phleps in his honour.[54]
Phleps was accused by the Yugoslav authorities of war crimes in association with the atrocities committed by 7th SS Division in the area ofNikšić inMontenegro during Case Black, while under his command. At theNuremberg trials on 6 August 1946, a document from the Yugoslav State Commission for Crimes of Occupiers and their Collaborators regarding the crimes of the 7th SS Division was quoted as follows:[55]
At the end of May 1943 the division came to Montenegro to the area of Niksic in order to take part in the fifth enemy offensive in conjunction with the Italian troops. [...] The officers and men of the SS divisionPrinz Eugen committed crimes of an outrageous cruelty on this occasion. The victims were shot, slaughtered and tortured, or burnt to death in burning houses. [...] It has been established from the investigations entered upon that 121 persons, mostly women, and including 30 persons aged 60–92 years and 29 children of ages ranging from 6 months to 14 years, were executed on this occasion in the horrible manner narrated above. The villages [and then follows the list of the villages] were burnt down and razed to the ground. [...] For all of these most serious War Crimes those responsible besides the actual culprits—the members of the SS DivisionPrinz Eugen—are all superior and all subordinate commanders as the persons issuing and transmitting the orders for murder and devastation. Among others the following war criminals are known: SS Gruppenfuehrer and Lieutenant General of the Waffen-SS Phleps; Divisional Commander, Major General of the Waffen-SS Karl von Oberkamp; Commander of the 13th Regiment, later Divisional Commander, Major General Gerhard Schmidhuber...
The post-war Nuremberg trials made the declaratory judgement that the Waffen-SS was a criminal organisation due to its major involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the killing of prisoners of war and atrocities committed in occupied countries.[56]
Phleps received the following awards during his service:
Phleps was married; his wife's name was Grete. They had a son, Reinhart, and a daughter, Irmingard.[62] One of Phleps's brothers became a doctor, and the other was a professor at theDanzig technical university, nowGdańsk University of Technology.[4]
Media related toArtur Phleps at Wikimedia Commons| Military offices | ||
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| Preceded by New formation | Commander of7th SS Volunteer Mountain DivisionPrinz Eugen 30 January 1942 – 15 May 1943 | Succeeded by SS-BrigadeführerKarl Reichsritter von Oberkamp |
| Preceded by New formation | Commander ofV SS Mountain Corps 8 July 1943 – 21 September 1944 | Succeeded by SS-Brigadeführer Karl Reichsritter von Oberkamp |
| International | |
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