Editing Joseph Rotblat (section)

== Early life ==
Józef Rotblat was born on 4 November 1908 to a Polish-Jewish family in [[Warsaw]],<ref name="obit" /> then part of the Russian-ruled Kingdom of Poland, better known as [[Congress Poland]].{{sfn|Brown|2012|pp=1–5}} He was one of seven children, two of whom died in infancy.<ref name="odnb">{{Cite ODNB| title = Rotblat, Sir Joseph (1908–2005)|first=Brian |last=Cathcart |author-link=Brian Cathcart  | doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/96004 | year = 2004 }}</ref> His father, Zygmunt Rotblat, built up and ran a nationwide [[Carriage|horse-drawn carriage]] business, owned land and bred horses. Józef's early years were spent in what was a prosperous household but circumstances changed at the outbreak of [[World War I]]. Borders were closed and the family's horses were requisitioned, leading to the failure of the business and poverty for their family.{{sfn|Brown|2012|pp=1–5}} Despite having a religious background, by the age of ten, he doubted the existence of God,{{sfn|Brown|2012|pp=5–6}} and later became an [[agnostic]].{{sfn|Brown|2012|p=151}}<ref>{{harvnb|Rotblat|Ikeda|2007|p=94}}. "I have to admit, however, that there are really many things that I do not know. I am not a particularly religious person, and this is the reason for my agnosticism. To be an agnostic simply means that I do not know and will keep seeking the answer for eternity. This is my response to questions about religion."</ref>

Rotblat's parents could not afford to send him to a [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]], so Rotblat received his secondary education in a ''[[cheder]]'' taught by a local rabbi. He then attended a technical school, where he studied [[electrical engineering]], graduating with his diploma in 1923 in the newly established [[Second Polish Republic|Republic of Poland]]. After graduating, Rotblat worked as an [[electrician]] in Warsaw, but had an ambition to become a physicist.<ref name="odnb" /> He sat the entrance examinations of the [[Free Polish University|Free University of Poland]] in January 1929, and passed the physics one with ease, but was less successful in writing a paper about the [[Commission of National Education]], a subject about which he knew nothing. He was then interviewed by {{interlanguage link|Ludwik Wertenstein|pl}}, the Dean of the Science Faculty. Wertenstein had studied in Paris under [[Marie Curie]] and at the [[Cavendish Laboratory]] at the [[University of Cambridge]] under [[Ernest Rutherford]]. Wertenstein offered Rotblat a place.{{sfn|Brown|2012|pp=7–9}}

Rotblat earned a Master of Arts at the Free University in 1932. After, he entered the [[University of Warsaw]], and became a Doctor of Physics in 1938. He held the position of Research Fellow in the Radiological Laboratory of the Scientific Society of Warsaw, of which Wertenstein was the director, and became assistant Director of the Atomic Physics Institute of the Free University of Poland in 1938.<ref name="Curriculum Vitae"/>