Are modern Europeans descended in any way from Neanderthals?

It's unlikely, but perhaps not entirely impossible. The anthropologist Myra Shackley did some serious research into the subject in the 1970s and 1980s. She published her work in a couple of books and summarised it in an article in the journal 'Antiquity'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myra_Shackl... http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/056/Ant056003... (the second link is a pay for access journal article, but it at least gives you the bibligraphic details for the paper so you can try to get hold of a library copy)).

Absolutely! Lots of people have Neanderthal feautures but they are covered slightly by modern clothing, hair grooming and posture. Lots of Neanderthal DNA still exists because, obviously, the race interbred with the Homo Sapiens because Neanderthals were warm to their form.

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.