Yup, you could indeed define a class that when applied to an anchor would exclude it from performaing your fade out and redirect.
The unobtrusive way would be to look for the hash symbol (#) or mailto:, etc. to prevent those types of links from fading out.
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.