Can you leverage Site. Master for this purpose, or at least another Master of your own creation? All of your views can then reference this Master and gain the benefit of initialized JavaScript and layout elements.
The closest you can get to CustomControlls are Partials. They are not as powerfull as CustomControlls because they have no eventhandling (obviously) but are a good way to separate common html.
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.