Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Sudeten Mountains run along the southern edge of Silesia and extend into the Carpathian Mountains near the Silesian Beskids. The Oder River flows through the heart of the territory while tributaries like the Bóbr, Kwisa, and Nysa Kłodzka carve valleys through the landscape.
Celtic tribes entered Silesia through the Kłodzko Valley in the fourth century BC and settled around Mount Ślęża. These early inhabitants established communities near modern cities including Wrocław, Oława, and Strzelin before Germanic Lugii tribes appeared by the first century BC.
King Frederick II of Prussia seized most of Silesia from Austria in 1742 during the War of the Austrian Succession. Breslau became one of Germany's largest cities after the province was established as a Prussian entity in 1815.
Between May 5 and the 17th of June 1942, 20,000 Silesian Jews were sent to Birkenau gas chambers. During August 1942, another 10,000 to 13,000 Silesian Jews were murdered at Auschwitz while the region housed the Gross-Rosen concentration camp.
From June 1945 to January 1947, 1.77 million Germans fled or were expelled from Lower Silesia alone. The population of Głogów fell from 33,500 to just 5,000 after these transfers while Wrocław lost 25 percent of its residents between 1939 and 1966.