I’ve never heard of ethnic Silesians. Are they Slavs, Teutons, or what?
They sound polyglot (ethnically) but the Silesian tongue may be Germanic. I guess I could go look a second... [sound of virtual footsteps growing more distant]
Oh, okay, the name comes from a Roman-era Germanic tribe, “Silingii”, but the population was later Slavonic; later in medieval times the German population grew again, and about 100 years ago (when the entry found at the link was written) Silesia was about 1/4 Polish and 3/4 German. .
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13790b.htm
According to the wiki-wacky, the German population was removed to the eventual East Germany and replaced with Polish folks removed from eastern Poland, as the USSR pushed both borders of Poland to the west.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silesia
Upper Silesian is a West Slavic language, and Lower Silesian is/was Germanic:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silesian_language
other links:
http://www.polishroots.org/genpoland/sil.htm
http://www.schoenwitz.de/ahnen/quellen/kblz.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Silesia
(the “polishroots” page has an historical map showing the formerly German hometown of some of my ancestors)