Completely inappropriate behavior and your husband should have told her so...stressing how disrespectful she was being to his wife and his status as a married man. She's only an ex-co worker...he should return such an expensive gift.
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.