Face Down: The Disappearance of Thomas Niedermayer
Face Down: The Disappearance of Thomas Niedermayer
By David Blake Knox
The first comprehensive account of one of the darkest and mostly forgotten episodes of the Troubles.
9781848408470 | Paperback | 384 pp. | Publishing: 16th October 2023
On 27 December 1973 the nightmare began: late that night German businessman Thomas Niedermayer was kidnapped from his home in Belfast. Never seen alive again by his friends or family, he became one of the ‘disappeared’ and it seemed that no one knew what had happened to him.
His wife, Ingeborg, and his daughters, Renate and Gabriele, spent the next seven years not knowing if Thomas were alive or dead. In 1980, an IRA informant led police to recover his body. But the trauma for Thomas’s family was far from over: there were further devastating consequences for all of them.
Five decades on, FACE DOWN sets out to discover what really happened in Belfast all those years ago.
Now in its second, updated edition and the subject of a feature-length documentary, this astonishing story of one family's generational trauma undermines any attempt to glamorise or minimise the effects of political violence.
“‘David Blake Knox’s non-fiction work is a lie detector for the post-Troubles era ... Niedermayer becomes, in Blake Knox’s clear yet deceptively subtle argument, a perfect test case.’”
“‘A consistently thought-provoking read... impressively researched and morally clear-sighted.’ ”
“‘Gripping, chilling, properly enraging...The film digs up some still-startling horrors, but it also restores fleshed-out humanity to a decent man.’ ****”
“‘Searingly powerful’”
“‘A shocker…really worth people being reminded [of the Niedermayer story]… a documentary that lives up to it’s one and half hours.’ 4.5*”
“‘We both cried throughout. She lives four minutes from where Thomas Niedermayer was buried ... but she had never heard of the case. She can’t get it out of her head now [and] we left the cinema stunned.’”
“FACE DOWN relates the account with measured urgency, detailing the backdrops of the key individuals involved and the ruthless landscape of the larger conflict … At a time when we urgently need a grown-up conversation about the legacy of republicanism and what we chose to forget, this book is a powerful platform for the huge cohort of survivors history left behind. ”
“‘A rigorous and compelling historical study.’ ”
“‘This is no refresher course in Irish history. Blake Knox has the ability to write this non-fiction book like a novel.’”
“‘David Blake Knox and Gerry Gregg’s fine documentary explores one of the Troubles’ most shameful episodes.’ ****”
“‘The kidnapping and killing of Thomas Niedermayer by the Provisional IRA is given a family context and gripping historical background… the dignity of Niedermayer’s granddaughters, their resilience and compassion, are deeply moving; the film skilfully shows how brutal acts rarely happen in a vacuum, but reverberate for many years’ ***”
“‘Tells the shocking story of the IRA kidnapping and killing in 1973 of Thomas Niedermayer, the German boss of the Belfast Grundig factory, where Catholics and Protestants worked together productively, and how this led remorselessly to four family suicides. I cannot praise it enough. We have an unembroidered, heartrending story showing the ghastly reality of terrorism, and the torment victims go through … The contributions from commentators [are] superb.’ ”
“‘An overpowering experience. Many reports and documentaries and TV dramas and movies have been produced about the Troubles, so I hesitate to say it is the best – but it is certainly up among them.’ ”
