"Papirosn" was later amended to mirror the tribulations of the Holocaust in the ghettos of Poland and Lithuania. The song was used as a base for many Holocaust songs in the Lodz and Vilna Ghettos, among others. Shmerke Kaczerginski found two alternate versions of the song, both of which share the tune of the original but have different stories: One version was written by Yankele Hershkowitz, a famous street singer from the Lodz Ghetto; it follows the story of the original song but tells a story about ration coupons in the Ghetto. The other version, written by Jewish poet Rikle Glezer, describes the Ponary massacre. An additional version from the Warsaw Ghetto makes a direct allusion to the original but the boy sells ghetto black bread instead of cigarettes. There have been other versions of the song, including non-Yiddish versions.