My experience is just taking a language you don't know at all, or know extremely little of, does not sink in by watching movies and such in that language. You simply hear words go by and it just sounds like gibberish. You need to spend a few weeks, more likely months, going over vocabulary words grammar and such to get a framework established.
Then maybe you can watch cartoons in German, like The little Einsteins, Caillou or Peppa Pig to start to try and hear it. These are good because they use simple sentence structures. I would get into German with Duolingo for example as a beginning point, then after some time, watch the cartoons a bit every day till it starts to make sense, while continuing to expand your vocabulary and grammar and such with other resources as your knowledge grows.
It can be done online with spending little money. Maybe just get one good grammar book for learners.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.