What I'm asking isn't whether or not the Holocaust happened, nor if the numbers are accurate, or why the concept of a Holocaust exists in the first place. The Holocaust obviously happened, the numbers are obviously accurate, and the Holocaust is a valid term for such an event. What I'm asking is what kind of criteria designated victims of Nazi killings as deaths from the Holocaust rather than regular Nazi violence. For example, why are the killings of Jews in extermination camps considered 'Holocaust' while the killings of Soviet POW's in extermination camps are not?
It's always been my interpretation that the Holocaust refers to the crisis and not WW2 as a whole. Therefore, the deaths of Soviet POWs wouldn't contribute to Holocaust death counts but the deaths of Jews and civilians in general would. Soviet deaths at the hands of Nazi's were simply wartime killed soldiers while the deaths of innocent civilians was murder. I may be wrong, that is just how I perceived it.