Berlin (CNN) Hands trembling, face panic-stricken, Fares Naem recalls the night he tried to stop a far-right attack -- only to become its target. The Syrian refugee was on a tram in central Berlin when he spotted two white men hurling abuse at a black passenger.

"I could not keep silent," he says. "What really shocked me was that no one did anything. I simply felt I had to say something."

Naem began filming the confrontation on his mobile phone -- drawing the attention, and the anger, of the man's attackers. In retaliation, they turned on him.

When he tried to flee at the next stop, the men dragged him behind a shop and assaulted him. Bloodied and beaten, he went into the store to ask for help, but says he was ignored.

Another man came to his aid. Naem says the man apologized, insisting, "Not all Germans are like that." But the attack left him scared.

Read More