According to Michael C. Steinlauf, the Polish communists who took power in Poland were mainly KPP members who sheltered in Moscow during the war, and included many Jews who thus survived the Holocaust. In addition, since Jews were excluded from the government of the Second Polish Republic, other Jews were attracted by the openness of the communist government to accept them. Some Jews changed their names to Polish sounding name, fueling speculation of "hidden Jews" in subsequent decades. However, Steinlauf notes that the reality of Jewish representation in government was "nowhere near" the Żydokomuna stereotype. In parallel, Steinlauf notes that 1,500 to 2,000 Jews were murdered between 1944 and 1947 in the worse spate of anti-Jewish violence in the history of Polish-Jewish relations. These attacks were accompanied by classic blood libel, brought international notoriety to Poland, and reinforced the notion that the Communist government was the sole force that could protect the Jews. However, most Jews were convinced by the widespread pogroms that Poland held no future for them. By 1951, when the government banned immigration to Israel, only 80,000 Jews remained in Poland and many of them did so since they believed in the Communist government.