The following is a delightful extract from Roman Kaluza's
biography of Stefan Banach, who was one of the giants of
20th century mathematics, and my namesake, but was no
relation as far as I know.


Bohdan Mis, a Popularizer of mathematics and a journalist
to whom Banach's son later made the original Scottish Book
available, relates the following perhaps partly apocryphal
but revealing story, which became in Poland a part of the
Scottish Cafe legend:

  ... Von Neumann (1903-1957), an American mathematician
  of Hungarian descent, called by some "the Gauss of the
  20th Century," visited Poland three times between the
  wars.  Each time, on personal instructions from Norbert
  Wiener, father of cybernetics, he tried to talk Stefan
  Banach into emigrating to the United States; his last
  visit to Lvov took place in 1937.  Responding to the
  latest job offer Banach asked:
  "And how much is Professor Wiener willing to pay?"
  "We anticipated this question," responded the confident
  American reaching into his pocket; "here is a check
  signed by Professor Wiener on which he entered only
  the numeral 1.  Please add to it as many zeros as you
  deem fit!"  Banach contemplated the offer for a moment
  and responded:
  "This sum is too small to leave Poland."
  And he stayed, as the clouds of war were beginning to
  gather over Europe.  Even at the last moment before the
  war, when Ulam proposed an escape plan, the scientist
  refused to leave.  That hard, coldly calculating man
  was a great Polish patriot, and he felt a greater
  attachment to Poland than anything else....