Es brent

History

There is no single, universally accepted story behind the song’s creation. Most postwar memoirs claim Gebirtig wrote it in 1937, directly inspired by the pogroms in Przytyk (1936) and Brest (1937), and that he began performing it in Krakow coffee houses and other venues later that decade, often changing the lyrics slightly. But some people who were alive then disagree, arguing it was never tied to those specific events and was instead a general outcry against growing antisemitism in Poland. Several recollections note that the song’s opening melody was identical to the sound of Krakow’s fire engine sirens at the time.

By 1939, as Europe’s political climate shifted, Gebirtig altered the poem’s final line from “if the town is dear to you” to “if life is dear to you.” Increasing antisemitic censorship in Poland meant he was sometimes banned from performing the song in public.

During the war, Jewish partisans, especially in Krakow, adopted the song as their own. Some accounts say imprisoned resistance fighters in Montelupich Prison used its whistled melody as a code.

After the war, efforts were made to publish Gebirtig’s songs, including those that had only ever been performed and never written down. The Jewish Historical Committee in Krakow released an anthology in 1946, and the Workman’s Circle published another in 1948. The song also became part of the repertoire of a Zionist youth choir in Bucharest, whose leader, Itzchak Artzi, had learned it from Polish concentration camp survivors.

Performances and adaptations

"Es brent" has been performed and adapted in Yiddish, Hebrew, English, and other languages. Dozens of artists have recorded the Yiddish version, among them Sidor Belarsky, Sarah Gorby, the Workman's Circle Chorus, Louis Danto, and Bente Kahan. In Hebrew, Israeli singer Dorit Reuveni recorded a translation, and the metal band Salem performed an adaptation.

The poem also inspired the title of Shalom Hulewsky’s Hebrew book, Hayara Boeret. In 2020, Mark Rubin released his own English translation with a new melody. Several recorded versions exist; the British band Oi Va Voi included a rendition with altered Yiddish lyrics on their album Travelling the Face of the Globe.