The foregoing exchange is an excerpt from a posthumously published interview with Heidegger, in which the philosopher addresses his political engagement with National Socialism. It prompts the question of exactly why the pro-Nazi statements Heidegger made in 1933 were things he stopped saying by 1934 and would no longer write after that. In the excerpt, Heidegger describes his earlier statements as a bit of hyperbole intended to placate the Nazi authorities and thus ensure his own academic survival. However, over the course of the interview, Heidegger provides a more nuanced philosophical explanation.