I would say that you are going to have to suck it up and talk to him about it, he will either talk to you or lose you as a friend. I went through a situation similar to yours and that's what I had to do. We talked about it and decided that it didn't mean anything, and we didn't want to ruin the friendship.
And are still best friends now, so in my opinion it worked.
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.