Units under his command committed many crimes against the civilian population of the Independent State of Croatia, German-occupied territory of Serbia and Italian governorate of Montenegro.

Phleps was born in what was then called Birthälm (Biertan), near Hermannstadt (Sibiu) in Siebenbürgen, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (modern-day Transylvania, Romania).

[3][6] In 1903, Phleps was transferred to the 11th Feldjäger (rifle) Battalion in Güns (in modern-day Hungary),[3] and in 1905 was accepted into the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt.

He remained in this theatre of operations for the next two years, ultimately serving as the chief quartermaster of the German 9th Army,[7] and was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class, on 27 January 1917.

[8] In 1918 he returned to the mountains when he was transferred to Armeegruppe Tirol, and ended the war as an Oberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel) and chief quartermaster for the entire Alpine front.

For his tactical and commanding abilities displayed in the war, he was praised by Generals Hanzu, Mihăescu [ro] and Petala, and was decorated with the Officer's cross of the Order of the Star of Romania with swords and ribbon of military virtue.

[9] Between 1921 and 1923, he commanded the 84th Infantry Regiment from Bistrița,[10] then joined the general army headquarters and started teaching logistics at the Romanian War Academy in Bucharest.

[13] He commanded various Romanian units, including the 1st Brigade of the vânători de munte (mountain troops), while also serving as a military advisor to King Carol II in the 1930s.

[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 the Volksgruppe in Rumänien (ethnic Germans in Romania), Andreas Schmidt, Phleps had written to the key Waffen-SS recruiting officer SS-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 the Wehrmacht, and this was approved by the recently installed Romanian Conducător (leader), the dictator General Ion Antonescu.

[19] He was appointed an SS-Standartenführer (colonel) by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and joined the SS Motorised Division Wiking,[18] where he commanded Dutch, Flemish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish volunteers.

[8] On 30 December 1941, Generalfeldmarschall (field marshal) Wilhelm Keitel advised Himmler that Adolf Hitler had authorised the raising of a seventh Waffen-SS division from the Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) of Yugoslavia.

After recruitment, formation and training in the Banat region in October 1942, the two regiments and supporting arms were deployed into the southwestern part of the German-occupied territory of Serbia as an anti-partisan force.

[26] After a short rest and refit in April, the division was committed to Case Black in May and June 1943, during which it advanced from the Mostar area into the Italian governorate of Montenegro killing, according to Kumm, 250 partisans and capturing over 500.

For example, Himmler's police representative in the NDH, SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Polizei Konstantin Kammerhofer, reported on 15 July 1943 that units of the 7th SS Division had shot the Muslim population of Kosutica, about 40 men, women, and children gathered in a "church".

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 the Austrian presidency.

[40] In January 1944, due to fears that the Western Allies would invade along the Dalmatian coastline and islands, V SS Mountain Corps forced the mass evacuation of male civilians between the ages of 17 and 50 from that area.

Accompanied only by his adjutant and his driver, and unaware of the presence of Red Army units in the vicinity, he entered Șimand, a village approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of Arad, on the afternoon of 21 September 1944.

[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.

[54] Phleps was accused by the Yugoslav authorities of war crimes in association with the atrocities committed by 7th SS Division in the area of Nikšić in Montenegro during Case Black, while under his command.

For all of these most serious War Crimes those responsible besides the actual culprits—the members of the SS Division Prinz Eugen—are all superior and all subordinate commanders as the persons issuing and transmitting the orders for murder and devastation.