Elek
Elek is a town in Békés County, in the Southern Great Plain region of south-east Hungary. Until the Second World War, the town was home to the largest concentration of Germans in the county, with its population consisting almost entirely of Swabians. Jews lived in the city as early as the 19th century and in 1944 many of them were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust.
Geography
The town covers an area of and had a population of 5,567 in 2002.History
- 1232 : First mentioned
- 1566-1696 : Ottoman rule
- 1724 : settling of German colonists
- 1739 : Bubonic plague
- 1894 : Artesian aquifer
- 1920 : Elek becomes border town
- 1946 : Expulsion of German inhabitants
- 1996 : Elek gains town status
Twin towns
Elek is twinned with:- Gerolzhofen, Germany
- Alerheim, Germany
- Leimen, Germany
- Sebiș, Romania
- Gerlingen, Germany
- Laudenbach, Germany
- Veľké Kapušany, Slovakia
- Grăniceri, Romania
- Dumbrava, Romania