If your data on it is VERY valuable, you'd need to pay a HDD specialist, (which could be very expensive), to get the data off it. Other that, there's very little chance of you getting the data from it with any ease or guarantee.
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.