To communicate in a decoupled way MVVM Light toolkit provides the messenger Class. It can also launch dialogs and provide callbacks. Very handy very light very useful.
You should NOT have a bunch of MainViewModel partial definitions. You should create individual ViewModel classes for each type of ViewModel.
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.