Is it fair for the GRE test makers to place such great emphasis on rote vocabulary?

Not entirely. This has been one of the main criticisms of the General GRE, and this undue emphasis on vocabulary is behind the testing service's decision to significantly revise the Verbal section of the GRE. Anyone testing on or after August 1, 2011 will take the GRE Revised General Test, which contains no Analogy or Antonym questions.

The revised Verbal section will measure vocabulary instead through in-context Text Completion questions. More.

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.