Hannah Arendt played a central role in the debates about Walter Benjamin's life and work as a confidante during his exile in Paris, as a later editor of his writings, and as a mediator of his ideas. The emphasis on the independence of his writings and their distance from Critical Theory primarily stems from Arendt's famous Benjamin essay from 1968. This volume documents the history of this friendship and the subsequent controversies based on unpublished letters and little-known testimonies. The focus is on Arendt's major Benjamin essay and its impact.