The sheet music for the song was published later, but the melody was a common one that was disseminated orally.The copy presented here was prepared by Meir Noy, who wrote down the music for songs that achieved folksong status and pasted them into the original book.

During the Holocaust, different lyrics were written to the same melody. This song, from the Kaunas ghetto, describes the Jews leaving the ghetto to work and their attempts to survive by smuggling goods back into the ghetto. While the guards warm themselves at the fire by the gate, the Jews are merely trying to survive. The name of the song is Baym Geto Toyer and it, too, continues "brent a fayerl."

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