The Gestapo, the Storm Troopers and ICEÂ
March 2, 2026
It is important to try to draw lessons from our collective past, but historical comparisons are tricky things.
Benjamin Hett is a professor in the Department of History of Hunter College at the City University of New York. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and English literature from the University of Alberta (1987) and then a J.D. from the University of Toronto (1990). Four years of legal practice convinced him to return to the University of Toronto for a master’s degree in history (1995) before he moved on to Harvard for a Ph.D. (2001). For two years, he taught in the history and literature program at Harvard, alongside advising graduate students at the Harvard Law School. In 2003, he joined the faculty of Hunter College, and in 2006, that of the Graduate Center at CUNY.Â
Hett’s work has dealt with a number of themes, from the theory and practice of criminal law in Germany, through the coming to power of the Nazis and the legacy of National Socialism in postwar Germany, to the work of West German intelligence services in the 1950s.Â
He is the author of six books (Death in the Tiergarten, 2004; Crossing Hitler, 2008; Burning the Reichstag, 2014; The Death of Democracy, 2018; Otto John – Patriot oder Verräter, 2019, with Michael Wala; and The Nazi Menace, 2020) and a number of articles. Hett has been a recipient of the Annelise Thimme and Hans Rosenberg Prizes for the best article and best book, respectively, on German history by a North American scholar; the Fraenkel Prize from the Wiener Library in London; and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies. Â
It is important to try to draw lessons from our collective past, but historical comparisons are tricky things.
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