The lyricist of the song, Aaron Zeitlin (or Ahron Tzeitlin) was born in Russia but lived in Poland. The story of the play, Esterke, is about a Polish legend of a Polish King who falls in love with a Jewish woman about 600 years ago (it is unclear if the story is true). The original Yiddish words of the song are "Dana, dana, dana" (pronounced approximately like the female name "Donna" in English). it is believed that this word comes from the Polish language, and it is the equivalent of musical nonsense words meaning "tra-la-la-la." I have seen the original Yiddish words (using Hebrew letters) and the vowels confirm this pronunciation. Joan Baez mispronounced these words (there are several theories why this happened) and the "Dona" pronunciation has stuck ever since, but is, nevertheless, incorrect.

Zeitlin wrote his play by 1939, when he came to NY for the World's Fair, and became stuck in the US due to the Holocaust. He later collaborated with the composer, Sholom Secunda, and the musical play version of Esterke, opened in NY City in October, 1940. Surely knowledge of the events happening in Europe against Jews was already somewhat known at that point, and that is the link this song has to the Holocaust. In any event, it certainly was prophetic about the events that occurred. Zeitlin's entire family was murdered in Europe.

The Secunda archives are at the Fales Library of New York University. The original manuscript score for Esterke (including Dana, Dana) is located there. The information is as follows if anyone wants to do the research to look this up: Phone: (212) 998-2596 Email: fales.library@nyu.edu. Series I. Musical Theater
Esterke 40 undated General note bar code #: 3 1142 04061855 8