Now that you've looked at Data Annotations and arrived to the conclusion that they are not adapted to your scenario I would suggest you looking at FluentValidation its integration with ASP.NET MVC and the way you would unit test your validation logic - you won't be disappointed (I really have nothing against Data annotations, they are great for blog posts and tutorials but once you are confronted to real world applications you quickly realize the limits).
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.