I hope you saw him & got the closure you needed. It will make it a lot easier knowing you had that 'last talk'.
It's good to have a closure. Take the opportunity of returning his stuff to have a good chat with him.
Speak to your own, you are the only one to know what's going on around you and take decision accordingly.
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.