This correspondence is an extraordinary document: Gustav Chomed (1920-2002) was a schoolmate and close friend of Celan's since around 1932. The exchange of letters between the two from 1938 to 1970 spans the longest period of all Celan's correspondence and is uniquely balanced between the two correspondents. The correspondence begins in 1938 with a long letter from Celan written in Tours, one of the earliest known letters from the poet. It concludes with letters from the last months of his life in 1970, in which Celan reveals his desperate situation while also reiterating important aspects of his late poetics. From Chomed's letters, we learn not only about the situation of Celan's friends who remained in Soviet Czernowitz but also about his journey as a soldier in the Red Army, which included experiences in Auschwitz and the charred Lei.