Vésztő

• Settlement Type — Town • Subdivision Type — Country • Timezone — CET • Utc Offset — +1 • Timezone Dst — CEST • Utc Offset Dst — +2 • Official Name — Vésztő • Subdivision Type1 — County • Subdivision Name1 — Békés • Subdivision Type2 — District • Subdivision Name2 — Szeghalom • Area Total Km2 — 125.76 • Population As Of — 2015 • Population Total — 6855 • Population Density Km2 — 54.5 • Postal Code Type — Postal code • Postal Code — 5530 • Area Code Type — Area code • Area Code — (+36) 66 • Website — http: www.veszto.hu/

It covers an area of 125.76 km2 and has a population of 6,855 people (2015). The town is situated in the Tisza plain.

North of the modern town, there is the archaeological site of a Neolithic tell. At its top, the medieval Csolt monastery is located.

In the 19th century, a Jewish community lived in the village. Most of them worked as merchants and later became industrialists. Their non-Jewish neighbors trusted them and some Jews were even elected to the city council and were also active in the town's culture. Relationships with their neighbors were generally good. The community had a Jewish school. The community synagogue was built in 1934 after the previous synagogue was destroyed in a flood. In 1920, 181 Jews lived in the community. In May 1944, after the German army entered Hungary, all the Jews were concentrated in a ghetto that included only two buildings in the city center, which were declared ghettos. On June 21, all Jews were sent to the Szolnok Ghetto, where author Ida Lang was murdered as a result of torture. Most of the Jews were transferred from Szolnok to the Auschwitz extermination camp. After the war, 34 survivors returned to the city, erected a monument in memory of the murdered, and tried to rehabilitate the community without success.

Vésztő is twinned with: • Dumbrava, Romania (1991) • Brăduț, Romania (1991) • Vârghiș, Romania (1991)

• László Hajdu (born 1947), Hungarian economist and politician • Menyhért Lakatos (1926—2007), Hungarian Romani writer