Sedona Red Rock High School senior Maxwell Jankowski’s interest in modern history is attributable to his Polish heritage and his family.
While living in the area of Memphis, Tenn., Jankowski came across a family heirloom that his father had kept that had belonged to Maxwell’s grandfather, Leonard “Jan the Polka Man” Jankowski, a 1980s Memphis radio personality.
According to Jankowski family lore, his grandfather had been awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta for spreading awareness of Polish culture — the second-highest civilian honor in Poland.
“He was recognized by, I believe it was the underground Polish government, because at the time, Poland was ruled by a communist government,” Jankowski said. “There’s no record of him ever receiving the award, but I know it because it’s framed in my room right now. I know we have it. Around that point, I began to become more curious.”
Jankowski has been engrossed by modern history ever since coming across the medal, regardless of its authenticity, and has become increasingly interested in Poland’s role during World War II.
“Learning about the atrocities and the bravery of the Polish people stood out to me,” Jankowski said. “Things like the Armia Krajowa,” the Polish Home Army resistance movement, “which was arguably the first or second resistance of World War II, and the bravery that they must have felt. I have a lot of personal attachment to the things that happened to these people so long ago, but still has such a large impact … Ninety percent of Warsaw is all new buildings after World War II because during the Warsaw Uprising, the Nazis had leveled almost the entire city to quell the rebellion. Because they didn’t care, because they considered the Slavs inferior. Learning things like that is horrific to me. But I feel like more people need to learn about these things.”
Jankowski later allowed his new interest in Polish history to inform his senior civic action project as part of Katharine Hill’s 12th grade government class, which requires students to identify a problem or issue that matters to them, write a research paper on the topic and draw up an action plan for addressing the problem.
“Originally, I had planned to do something on pollution in the Village of Oak Creek where I live,” Jankowski said. “The issue of pollution and litter is detrimental to a tourist-based economy. If we allow this place to fall in disrepair that cripples the economy, and no one is going to live here. But that seemed too broad of a scope … I did care about it but I’m one kid. I can’t really make a big difference on a scale like this. I changed my project to ‘Contextualizing World War II.’ Because I feel like America was isolated from [it] compared to Poland. I think a lot of American high schoolers don’t have a lot of the same respect for what happened then as people in Europe do. I think it’s a major problem seeing the rise of hate crimes, and especially what happened in Charlottesville.”
The city of Charlottesville, Va., removed statutes of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson in 2017. White supremacist groups then rallied and a white nationalist drove a car into counter-protesters, killing a woman and injuring 19 others.
Jankowski proceeded to ask his human geography teacher, Chris Ames, if he could present the project to the general education world history class.
“He did [about] five sections of class in one day,” Ames said. “He did a very nice job, it was about genocide, which is a very delicate topic, and I think he handled it very well. He [managed] to engage the students without being too graphic about these unfortunate things. I was very pleased with his presentation.”
“He did a nice job of addressing the Einsatzgruppen of the Nazis, which is the beginning point of departure for what later becomes the Holocaust, and that often gets overlooked,” Ames continued. “I was impressed that he gave attention to that. And the mass murders that took place in Poland, as the Nazis tried to kill off Slavic farmers so German settlers could come in … He also gave attention to things that not many American students are aware of. Among them is Japan’s biological experiments during the war with Unit 731, where they intentionally exposed people to the plague.”
Jankowski’s lesson takeaways were, “Every statistic from World War II carries heavy meaning. The world map looks the way it does as a result of immense human suffering. Don’t let history repeat.”
Sedona Concerns
Jankowski was born in Arizona but grew up in Nashville and Memphis, Tenn., before arriving in the VOC about three years ago.
“I came out of my shell in Sedona, so I have a lot of appreciation for the city,” Jankowski said. “I was very glad to get back and to actually develop a friend group, which I didn’t really have back in Memphis … This is such a beautiful place, and I’m very lucky to live here, emphasis especially on luck. Because there had to be some real things that fall in place. My grandmother bought the house I’m living in now in the ’90s when land was a lot cheaper than it is today. That’s the whole reason why we’re able to live here. My concern primarily is not the people, the people here are great. I love living here … but just the cost of living and driving back to the VOC from Sedona and just seeing all these mansions and space that can be used for more reasonably-sized housing saddens me. It just saddens me that for the foreseeable future [I’m] not going to have affordable housing, because the truth is, once I graduate college, there’s no way in hell I’m going to be able to live here.”
“Living here for me is unaffordable,” Jankowski told Williamson. “I can’t hope to have an apartment because we don’t. [Are] there any plans to build apartments or something? Because I would love to live here.”
Sedona city staff have estimated that the city needs about 1,300 new housing units.
“I think that the issue of Sedona’s aging population … and becoming less and less affordable for people is an issue that everybody has to bear,” Jankowski said. “I don’t want to be overly critical of the City Council. I know they’re doing all they can with everything. But we need to make sure that gets addressed appropriately.”
Jankowski plans to enroll in the fall at NorthernArizona University on a scholarship but has not yet chosen a major.
“He’s a fantastic student with a promising future and he really loves history,” Ames said. “I always try to put his arm into maybe becoming a history teacher someday, it’d be great if that happens. But there are many other things open to this very bright and promising student.”
“I would love to own something like an antique store [which] combines my hobbies like military surplus, historical artifacts, because I love history,” Jankowski said. “I would love to make a lot of money and also do something I love. Of course, that’s everyone’s goal. But I will see where my opportunities take me; there’s plenty that interests me. I’m sure what I say now won’t be relevant in 20 years