Word: silesia
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...forces aimed at the East Prussian border; Rokossovsky's and Zakharov's forces aimed directly west toward Berlin, but could swing north to envelop East Prussia, or north and south to envelop Warsaw; Konev's huge bridgehead on the upper Vistula pointed at Cracow and German Silesia. Most of the surface activity last week was in the Balkans, but the great drive had passed from the explosive to the mopping-up stage. The noises from Berlin betrayed well-grounded anxiety about the sectors north of the Carpathians, the direct menace to German soil...
...Westward, Poland must expand to include "ancient Pomorze [Pomerania], Upper Silesia, East Prussia, with its broad outlet to the sea, and Polish outposts on the Oder." No plan for German dismemberment had gone as far as this: it would lop from prewar Germany a large (roughly 26,000 sq. mi.),populous (about 6,500,000), rich (coal and iron mines, farm lands) territory, most of which had not belonged to the Slavs since the 11th Century. It would push Poland's border to within 50 miles of Berlin...
...Slovaks has long given the impression that they are all devoutly Catholic, anti-German, anti-Czech, antiCommunist, preeminently pro-Slovak. Their hilly land (14,484 sq. mi.) had been a part of Hungary for 1,011 years when, in 1918, the Versailles peacemakers joined Slovakia to Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and created Czechoslovakia. (Ruthenia, which the Russians entered last week, became a part of Czechoslovakia in 1919, was seized by Hungary...
Moscow suggested that Poland might in return take slices of Germany -presumably East Prussia, Upper Silesia and perhaps a sliver of Pomerania-territories to which Poland has dim historic rights and some strategic claim. Ethnologically and morally, Poland's claim to parts of Germany is no better than her claim to the eastern provinces; the single merit of such a gerrymander is that it would strengthen Russia and Poland, weaken Germany. There is much evidence that this idea was discussed at Teheran...
...Government noticeably did not demand a final showdown when the Red Army entered Old Poland. The Poles, if reasonably approached, may yet be willing to consider the Russian proposal that they surrender at least part of pre-war Eastern Poland, turn to German East Prussia and Silesia for recompense. Essentially, what the Polish Government cries out against is not so much the loss of part of Eastern Poland by postwar negotiation as the prospect that there will be no opportunity for negotiation...