Given name: Józef Family name: Kantorowicz

Had lived in Polish eastern borderlands until he was seven. His father was count Olesinski's secretary there. In 1937 they moved to Warsaw, where his father worked as a clerk in the ministry of the treasury. They lived at Targowa Street No. 64, the boy and his brother went to school, and would go to Grodno on holidays. After the war broke out, the father was taken captive. He came back, they lived off the rest of their savings. Later on, the mother managed to get a place for Jozek and his brother in a semi-broarding school at Nowolipki No. 25.