The best route to recruitment was considered to be inviting POWs to take on certain tasks which were considered to be equally in German and their own national interests. In the case of Irish nationals it was presumed that the cause of Irish reunification, an end to partition, and the absorption of Northern Ireland into the Irish Free State was a common cause which Germany could appear to support. An NCO from the "Abwehr II" commando unit, the Brandenburgers, Helmut Clissmann, was involved in selection of the candidates for training. Clissmann explained how the proposition of working for the German authorities was phrased to the POWs:"All Irishmen in prisoner-of-war camps were therefore invited to give their names with a view to going to a special camp which offered better conditions."