Friesack Camp - Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment and Selection

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."

It was believed that POWs familiar with the country could assist as saboteurs or agents, guiding German troops in the event of the invasions of Britain and Ireland (Operation Sea Lion and Operation Green respectively). Three entries in the Abwehr II war diary refer to the camp and its operation. The entries concern Operation Innkeeper, Operation Seagull I, and Operation Seagull II - all missions planned for either Britain or Ireland which involved attendees at Camp Friesack.

The German authorities were conscious that the possible recruits putting themselves forward for selection might have included moles, faux Irish nationalists, faux Irishmen with little connection to the island, and informers ordered by their superiors to report back on the details of the training. To guard against this, each candidate that showed an interest was interviewed by Clissmann and also by Frank Ryan, a former IRA member who been captured by Franco's forces during the Spanish Civil War and whose release from a 30-year prison sentence into the hands of the Abwehr had been organised by the Irish Government. However, Ryan's cooperation is disputed.

According to Clissmann, the initial December 1940 recruitment pool from the entire Stalag network was just over one hundred POWs, with each claiming to be of Irish nationality, and the number of officers was under five. The five officers made it clear that they would only fight in the event of an invasion of Ireland by British troops (this was being planned as Friesack recruitment took place, see Plan W). In Spring 1941, when Dr. Jupp Hoven, who was considered an "expert" on Irish affairs because of his time in the country before the war, arrived at Friesack, he found a recruiting base of eighty Irish POWs. This was eventually weeded down to a mere ten POWs who the Germans felt were sincere in their desire to fight for Germany. In order to keep their agreement to work for the Axis secret from their fellow prisoners, a prison break to spirit these POWs from the camp was arranged and the ten men were taken to Berlin to take up training by Abwehr II. In Berlin they were accommodated in a house.