The Moshe Mirilashvili Center for Research on the Holocaust in the Soviet Union operates under the auspices of The International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, Jerusalem.
The purpose of the Center is to promote and initiate the innovative research about the history of the Jews during World War II who were living on territories included within the borders of the Soviet Union as of June 22, 1941.
Among the main topics that are studied by the Center are the fate of the Jews who were caught by the war on territories occupied by the Germans; Jews in the Red Army and in the Soviet rear; Soviet policy toward the Jews; and the impact of the Holocaust on the identity of Soviet and post-Soviet Jewry. The approaches applied include the use of newly developed methodologies regarding the history of the Soviet Union and general Jewish history using interdisciplinary approaches accepted in history, sociology, anthropology and psychology, and the study of identity and historical memory.
The Center organizes conferences and workshops on various topics connected with World War II and the Holocaust. At the same time, it initiates research on the topic, including web projects regarding the Holocaust in the USSR, and supports the publications of books, collections of articles, and annotated collections of relevant archival documents. The Center conducts the study on the Holocaust via cooperation with scholars and scientific research institutes and organizations from the Former Soviet Union, Israel, the United States, and Europe. One of his basic goals is to involve young scholars in research on the Holocaust.
The Center has been established with the generous support of Michael and Laura Mirilashvili and is named in memory of Michael's father Moshe Mirilashvili. The opening ceremony of the Center was held on May 9, 2016.