Ben Hughes is right. It's very difficult to get right, especially if you want to parse real articles from big wikis like Wikipedia itself with 100% accuracy. It is discussed frequently in the wikitech mailing list and no alternative parser has come up with the goods despite many attempts.
It's actually an incredibly difficult format to parse. You can try to separate out the parser component from media wiki (as it is also php), but it is a tangled mess. I've seen a few partial standalone ones that do a nearly reasonable job for a very limited subset of the markup.
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.