[Verginius Rufus]

The "Silesian" being talked about is a Slavic language, either a dialect of Polish or a closely-related West Slavic language. Until 1945 most of the population spoke German but they were expelled. Stalin insisted on getting eastern Poland (more or less everything east of the Curzon Line) and gave Poland a large chunk of territory that had been German--probably to make the Poles feel dependent on the Soviet Union to keep the newly-acquired territory when the Germans would feel it was wrongfully taken from them.

The first time I was in Europe was in 1969. I remember seeing a weather map (on a German-language TV program) which showed the areas Germany lost in 1945 labeled as "temporarily under Polish administration."

[Moltke]

I remember seeing a weather map (on a German-language TV program) which showed the areas Germany lost in 1945 labeled as "temporarily under Polish administration."

I think they've dropped that some time ago...no one even mentions it in a joking way anymore. Family on my mother's side had some very nice real estate holdings there until '45. Oh well...