One doesn't think of a non-Jewish perspective when one thinks of the Holocaust.

The principal target of that terrible event, after all, were Jews in Germany and other countries consumed by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's maniacal Third Reich of 1933-1945. Some 6 million Jews, along with political prisoners, the disabled, homosexuals and others deemed "non-Aryan" by the Reich perished.

Their story has been told for more than three decades at Millersville University's annual Holocaust Conference. This year's 32nd event, to be held April 18-20, focuses on the theme "The Holocaust and Genocide in Art & Film."

The conference will feature lectures, exhibits of mixed-media art and photography, films and concerts, all centering on how the Holocaust has been depicted in various forms of expression.

But preceding the conference is a different look at those troubled times.

 It's told not from the perspective of victims or persecutors, but from that of an "ordinary," non-Jewish German family, and how their lives in the occupied Polish capital of Warsaw are slowly exposed to surrounding horrors.

"Warsaw," to be presented at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 17, at The Ware Center, Millersville University Lancaster, is a play in two acts penned by William W. Adams, former president and CEO of Armstrong World Industries Inc. He also serves as director of the play, which will be presented as an enhanced stage reading.

Adams admits no personal connection to the Holocaust, though "Warsaw" is partially inspired by a former colleague from Armstrong's European management division, a non-Jew who spoke of life in Nazi-occupied Riga, Latvia, during the time of the Holocaust.

As in Warsaw, the Germans took over the city, segregated its Jewish population, and, for all intents and purposes, made it an extension of the "fatherland."

"You could grow up in a totally German environment" if you weren't Jewish, Adams said.

The Nazis seized the homes of Jews, often giving them to resettled German families. Such is the fate of the Jung family of Essen, Germany, in the play "Warsaw." The Jewish ex-occupants of the Jungs' new Polish residence have been taken away, but the German family only learns of this gradually.

This leads to the old but valid question of "What would you do?" in "Warsaw."

"It borrows from 'Pagliacci.' It borrows from 'Doubt,' " the former an opera where characters deal with deception and the latter a play in which people are faced with a choice between action and denial, Adams noted. For "Warsaw," Adams credits the help of such local artists as Victor Capecce, of the MU Department of Communication and Theatre, and the Fulton Theatre's Barry Kornhauser.

Both served as artistic advisers for the play. In it, anxiety builds for the Jungs, complicated by the presence of a key player, simply called The Man.

Though an officer of Hitler's SS, and "the face of evil, he doesn't raise his voice," Adams said. "He's very matter-of-fact." At one point, The Man dispassionately makes a point by simply drawing his finger across his neck, the universal symbol for a slit throat — and death. In this ever-closing world, even a game of charades takes on a sinister twist for the Jungs.

This is the first playwriting effort from Adams, who calls himself "rewired, not retired.

"There are some things I wanted to do," since his departure from Armstrong, Adams said. "I wanted to conduct a symphony." (He did, once conducting a performance of the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra). "I wanted to [raft] the Grand Canyon." (Adams also got to do that).

"And I wanted to write a play."

That's one of the few lighthearted connections with "Warsaw," which Adams said he hopes will trigger two reactions from the audience. One is "the visceral, gut-level, 'I'm glad I never had to go through that,' "Adams said. The second, he added, is that viewers will appreciate, in a revelatory way, "the horror of bureaucratic mass murder.

"We have a very thin veneer of civilization," Adams summed up about "Warsaw," The Man, and the caught-in-the-middle Jungs.

"You can scratch that veneer."

The details
For information about the 32nd Holocaust Conference to be held on the campus of Millersville University, log on to Millersville.edu/holocon. "Warsaw" will be staged at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 17, at The Ware Center, 42 N. Prince St. Admission is free, though audience members may contribute $10-$15 to defray costs of the production. For information on the play and all conference events, call Maggie Eichler, 872-3555.