Final answer:
The Jewish situation in Russia featured ongoing discrimination and pogroms, but in Nazi-occupied Poland, Jews faced immediate and systematic extermination through ghettos and concentration camps, reflective in answer C.
Step-by-step explanation:
The treatment of Jews in Russia prior to World War I and during the initial stages of the Soviet Union involved discriminatory laws, anti-Semitic sentiments, and violent pogroms. Jews faced restrictions on land ownership and professional opportunities, and widespread blame for economic and political troubles. Violent attacks on Jewish communities were common, such as the pogrom in Odessa in 1905.
Contrastingly, in Poland under Nazi occupation during World War II, the situation escalated to a more immediate genocidal policy. The Nazis created ghettos, where Polish Jews were forced to live in inhumane conditions before the majority were sent to concentration camps and systematically murdered. The rapid and large-scale extermination in Poland was particularly brutal due to the sizable Jewish population, which constituted about 10% of the country's pre-war population.
Therefore, the answer to the student's question is C: Most Polish Jews were killed first, and the rest were gathered into ghettos. This option reflects the tragic reality that unlike in Russia, where anti-Semitic tensions simmered over a longer period, the Nazi invasion of Poland led to immediate and systematic efforts to exterminate the Jewish people.