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.Documentation of the city's Jews who were murdered in the HolocaustHungarian Jewish census
Geography The town covers an area of and had a population of 5,567 in 2002.
History 1232 : First mentioned 1566-1696 : Ottoman rule (Ottoman wars in Europe) 1724 : settling of German colonists (predominantly from Franconia) 1739 : Bubonic plague 1894 : Artesian aquifer 1920 : Elek becomes border town (Treaty of Trianon) 1946 : Expulsion of German inhabitants 1996 : Elek gains town status
YearPopulation18021,20018352,50018905,70019308,40019409,30020005,50020104,98520194,816
Twin towns Elek is twinned with: Gerolzhofen, Germany (1990) Alerheim, Germany (1992) Leimen, Germany (1992) Sebiș (Borossebes), Romania (1992) Gerlingen, Germany Laudenbach, Germany (1994) Veľké Kapušany (Nagykapocs), Slovakia (1996) Grăniceri (Ottlaka), Romania (1997) Dumbrava (Igazfalva), Romania (2019)
References
External links
in Hungarian
tr:Elek