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BOCHNER Origin of surname

BOCHNER, BOCHENSKI, BUCHNE, BOCHNIER

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country). Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birthplace, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives.

This family name is derived from Bochnia, the name of a town in western Galicia, Poland. The meaning of the German / Yiddish suffix “-er” and of the Polish suffix “-ski” is “from”, “of”. First Jewish presence in Bochnia in the 16th century.  

Places, regions and countries of origin or residence are some of the sources of Jewish family names. But, unless the family has reliable records, names based on toponymics cannot prove the exact origin of the family

Distinguished bearers of the Jewish family name Bochner include the Polish-born American mathematician Salomon Bochner (1899-1982).  

Salomon Bochner (1899-1982), mathematician, born in Podgorze near Krakow, Poland (then part of Galicia in Austria-Hungary). His family moved to Germany in 1914. Bochner studied at the University of Berlin. He began his career as Harold Bohr’s assistant with important works on almost periodic functions. As a lecturer in Munich, Germany, from 1926 to 1933, when he fled Nazi Germany and immigrated to the United States. He obtained a position at Princeton University and was a visting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton from 1945 to 1948. He became a full professor at Princeton in 1959 holding this position until 1868, when he moved to Rice Univdersity in Houston, Texas, working there until his death.
Bochner worked on Fourier analysis and made his most important discoveries in this field. The high point of his creative period was his Vorlesungen ueber Fouriersche Integrale (Lectures on Fourier Integrals, 1932), a classic in mathematical literature. The Fourier transform is of great importance for a range of application-oriented fields within mathematics, e.g. for probability theory (characteristic functions). In 1955, Bochner wrote a similarly influential book, Harmonic Analysis and the Theory of Probability. Bochner’s most important result in the Vorlesungen is the characterization of the Fourier-Stieltjes transform of positive measures as positive definite functions. This result provided the starting point for the subsequent development of abstract harmonic analysis. Bochner’s book also contained the germ of the later development of the theory of distributions. It should also be noted that the extension of the Lebesgue integral to functions with values in a Banach space can also be traced back to the so-called Bochner integral.

Bochnia

From 1939 to 1945 called Salzberg

A town in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland.

In 1555 the Jews of Bochnia, who engaged in marketing and contracting for the salt impost, were granted a general privilege by King Sigismund Augustus. Jews there were accused of stealing the host in 1605 and a Jewish miner, allegedly the instigator, died under torture. Subsequently the Jews were expelled from Bochnia, and the city received the privilege de non tolerandis judaeis. This exclusion of the Jews remained in force until 1860, but Jews were allowed to resettle in the town only in 1862. They numbered 1,911 in 1900 and 2,459 in 1921.

An estimated 3,500 Jews (20% of the total population) lived in Bochnia in 1939. The German army entered the town on Sept. 3, 1939, and immediately subjected the Jewish population to persecution and terror. In May 1940 a huge "kontribution" of 3,000,000 zloty (600,000) was imposed by the Nazis on the Jewish population. In May 1942 a ghetto was established to which the entire Jewish population from all the surrounding towns and villages was brought. In august 1942 a massive Aktion was conducted by police units from Krakow. About 600 Jews were killed on the spot and another 2,000 deported to Belzec death camp. On Nov. 10, 1942, a second deportation took place during which about 700 people were killed and more than 500 deported to ghetto a, which became a forced labor camp; and ghetto b, which served as a concentration camp. In September 1943 the entire ghetto was liquidated. Those imprisoned in ghetto b were sent to Auschwitz for extermination while the inmates of ghetto a were
transferred to the concentration camp in Szebnia, where only a few survived. No Jewish community was reestablished in Bochnia after the war.

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BOCHNER Origin of surname

BOCHNER, BOCHENSKI, BUCHNE, BOCHNIER

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country). Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birthplace, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives.

This family name is derived from Bochnia, the name of a town in western Galicia, Poland. The meaning of the German / Yiddish suffix “-er” and of the Polish suffix “-ski” is “from”, “of”. First Jewish presence in Bochnia in the 16th century.  

Places, regions and countries of origin or residence are some of the sources of Jewish family names. But, unless the family has reliable records, names based on toponymics cannot prove the exact origin of the family

Distinguished bearers of the Jewish family name Bochner include the Polish-born American mathematician Salomon Bochner (1899-1982).  

Written by researchers of ANU Museum of the Jewish People
Salomon Bochner

Salomon Bochner (1899-1982), mathematician, born in Podgorze near Krakow, Poland (then part of Galicia in Austria-Hungary). His family moved to Germany in 1914. Bochner studied at the University of Berlin. He began his career as Harold Bohr’s assistant with important works on almost periodic functions. As a lecturer in Munich, Germany, from 1926 to 1933, when he fled Nazi Germany and immigrated to the United States. He obtained a position at Princeton University and was a visting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton from 1945 to 1948. He became a full professor at Princeton in 1959 holding this position until 1868, when he moved to Rice Univdersity in Houston, Texas, working there until his death.
Bochner worked on Fourier analysis and made his most important discoveries in this field. The high point of his creative period was his Vorlesungen ueber Fouriersche Integrale (Lectures on Fourier Integrals, 1932), a classic in mathematical literature. The Fourier transform is of great importance for a range of application-oriented fields within mathematics, e.g. for probability theory (characteristic functions). In 1955, Bochner wrote a similarly influential book, Harmonic Analysis and the Theory of Probability. Bochner’s most important result in the Vorlesungen is the characterization of the Fourier-Stieltjes transform of positive measures as positive definite functions. This result provided the starting point for the subsequent development of abstract harmonic analysis. Bochner’s book also contained the germ of the later development of the theory of distributions. It should also be noted that the extension of the Lebesgue integral to functions with values in a Banach space can also be traced back to the so-called Bochner integral.

Bochnia

Bochnia

From 1939 to 1945 called Salzberg

A town in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland.

In 1555 the Jews of Bochnia, who engaged in marketing and contracting for the salt impost, were granted a general privilege by King Sigismund Augustus. Jews there were accused of stealing the host in 1605 and a Jewish miner, allegedly the instigator, died under torture. Subsequently the Jews were expelled from Bochnia, and the city received the privilege de non tolerandis judaeis. This exclusion of the Jews remained in force until 1860, but Jews were allowed to resettle in the town only in 1862. They numbered 1,911 in 1900 and 2,459 in 1921.

An estimated 3,500 Jews (20% of the total population) lived in Bochnia in 1939. The German army entered the town on Sept. 3, 1939, and immediately subjected the Jewish population to persecution and terror. In May 1940 a huge "kontribution" of 3,000,000 zloty (600,000) was imposed by the Nazis on the Jewish population. In May 1942 a ghetto was established to which the entire Jewish population from all the surrounding towns and villages was brought. In august 1942 a massive Aktion was conducted by police units from Krakow. About 600 Jews were killed on the spot and another 2,000 deported to Belzec death camp. On Nov. 10, 1942, a second deportation took place during which about 700 people were killed and more than 500 deported to ghetto a, which became a forced labor camp; and ghetto b, which served as a concentration camp. In September 1943 the entire ghetto was liquidated. Those imprisoned in ghetto b were sent to Auschwitz for extermination while the inmates of ghetto a were
transferred to the concentration camp in Szebnia, where only a few survived. No Jewish community was reestablished in Bochnia after the war.