It is going to be up to the person who charged you with infringement - assuming you actually DID infringement - which they have to substantiate. Have you been given some options by this person? The problem if going to be bigger if you have benefited financially from copyrighted material.
Being a student doesn't give you ammunity -as the saying "ignorance of the law is no excuse" would suggest. If it was worth charging you - it is pretty important to someone and you could be drawn into a real mess. My advice is to call an attorney right away because if they are coming after you - you're going to want to take pre-emptive action.
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.