Wikipedia:Today's featured article/November 29, 2013



Artur Phleps (1881–1944) was an Austro-Hungarian, Romanian and German officer who held the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS (lieutenant general) in the Waffen-SS during World War II. He was an Austro-Hungarian Army officer before and during World War I, specialising in mountain warfare and logistics. During the interwar period, he joined the Romanian Army and became an adviser to King Carol. After he spoke out against the government, he was sidelined and forcibly retired from the army. In 1941 he left Romania and joined the Waffen-SS. He saw action on the Eastern Front before raising two Waffen-SS mountain divisions and one corps in occupied Yugoslavia. Units under his command committed many crimes against the civilian population of the Independent State of Croatia. This was the subject of international controversy when Kurt Waldheim's service as Phleps' translator became public in the mid-1980s, during his successful bid for the Austrian presidency. In addition to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, Phleps was awarded the German Cross in Gold, and after he was killed in September 1944, he was awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross.

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