Antakya, Turkey
8 March 1975

    I experienced this strange event just 17 days ago. It was in the Persian desert nearly 2 miles outside the village of Zahedan on a clear morning. My friend, Peter, and I had put up our tent, intentionally outside the village in order not to be disturbed by the villagers, which happens occasionally there. About 07:00 a.m. we were awakened by a strange noise, however we could not see anything unusual from our crouching position in the tent. We finally decided that the noise came from behind a sand dune about 50 yards away. Peter thought there might be laborers doing some special work there, and reentered the tent to go back to sleep.

    But I was interested and went to see what the laborers were doing. Walking around the sand dune, I suddenly came upon a woman of nearly my age. Strangely dressed, she reminded me of the astronauts I had seen in pictures. Obviously this woman too was startled when she discovered me, and she immediately stopped working with the strange apparatus with which she had dug into the sand. Now, quite amazed, I went up to her and asked her in English what she was doing there. She answered that she was looking for something fallen down here, which she was trying to dig out of the ground. She then went back to her digging, and after some minutes, actually found the thing she was looking for, a somewhat odd spiral-like cylinder, which she put into her strange machine standing there. Then, as she prepared to depart, she told me goodbye.

    In a strange manner I was attracted to her, and I quickly asked her to stay some minutes, which, after some hesitation, she finally did. I introduced myself to her and asked if she lived in Zahedan. However, she laughed and said that this place was too unfriendly, and that she had come from far away. She said her name was Semjaze or Semjase, if I got it right. After some talk about people in Persia she said that she had to leave. We said goodbye to each other, and she worked with her strange machine for a moment. Then, to my amazement, the whole thing rose up and hovered before she walked away and disappeared behind another sand hill.

    As soon as I recovered from this surprise, I ran up the hill around which the woman had vanished a moment before. But when I arrived at the top was struck spellbound, because what I saw now could not be true. About 100 meters away, there was a strange thing about which I used to laugh when people talked of them -- a Flying Saucer! I could not believe it and thought I must be crazy. However it had to be true, because I now saw how this woman, together with her machine vanished into the bottom of the ship and a door closed behind her. Then the Saucer went up without a noise and flew almost in my direction as it passed overhead. Suddenly, something like an unseen force pressed me down, and I fell and rolled down the sand dune. Still a little hazy, I got up again and beheld the Flying Saucer rising straight up slowly, then shooting away at a fantastic speed and vanishing into the blue sky with an odd sound.

    Really amazed, I remained in that place for some time before returning to the tent. On the way to it I suddenly felt very strange and overheard a voice inside my head apologizing to me several times. Later, I told everything to Peter who only laughed at my story and said I had got the "desert craziness." For that we started to quarrel and some hours later he left me for good. He told me he did not want to stay with a mad girl and it would be better for each of us if we would stay alone.

    However, I know I am not mad at all, and I know what I saw and experienced. I even remember that this woman said that she had a very good and dear friend in Europe. And I know exactly that I saw her, as well as her odd digging apparatus and the Flying Saucer. I am not mad at all, and have experienced all the facts I am describing to you.

    In the meantime, I found a new friend and told him everything, and he said that such things could exist, and that I should write the story to you, which I have done herewith, since you work with this subject. He had read about you in a newspaper. However, I do not want my name mentioned when you tell this to somebody else. It is enough that I get called crazy after having told the story to other people, and when I will return to Germany, I do not want that people would point at me saying that I am the "crazy girl" who had seen, in Iran, the Flying Saucer, the odd digging machine and the Lady from the stars. Please understand that and do not mention my name. Therefore I do not tell you more about me, no address and so forth, because as said before, it is enough that I was called mad everywhere I told my story. In Germany I might be taken to a madhouse when people know who I am and I return to my home town. Please do understant that.

I am sending nice greetings and
remain yours,
s/Elsa Schröder