We must see to it that we put the best of ourselves in our letters; for
there is nothing to suggest that we shall see each other again soon. So
wrote Walter Benjamin to Gretel Adorno in spring 1940 from the south of
France, shortly before he took his own life.
The correspondence between Gretel Adorno and Walter Benjamin, published
here in its complete form for the first time, is the document of a great
friendship that existed independently of Benjamin's relationship with
Theodor W. Adorno. While Benjamin, alongside his everyday worries,
writes especially about those projects on which he worked so intensively
in the last years of his life, it was Gretel Karplus-Adorno who did
everything in her power to keep Benjamin in the world.
She urged him to emigrate and told him about Adorno's plans and Bloch's
movements, thus maintaining the connection between the old Berlin
friends and acquaintances. She helped him through the most difficult
times with regular money transfers, and organized financial support from
the Saar region, which was initially still independent from the Third
Reich. Once in New York, she attempted to entice Benjamin to America
with her descriptions of the city and the new arrivals from Europe
though ultimately to no avail.
