DRESDEN, Germany –Egyptian Magdi Khalil is an educated man. He lived in Japan for seven years, teaching architecture and designing environmentally-friendly houses. Now he lives in Dresden and teaches at the local university. He says he likes the town - but that the Egyptian community has suffered what he calls "a disaster."

A protester at Cairo airport awaits the body of Marwa El-Sherbini, who was killed in Germany.

He's referring to the killing of Marwa El-Sherbini - an Egyptian woman, mother and wife - in a German courtroom by a man who appears to have acted upon hatred for Muslims.

That man, a German man of Russian descent identified only as Alex W. by German authorities, had already been fined for calling his victim, who wore a headscarf, a "terrorist," after she asked him to let her son use a swing in a playground. She had taken him to court; he had been fined and was now going into revision when the incident happened.

By all accounts, almost everything that happened in the court room was a disaster. Khalil recounts the details of what has been reported –- and believes many questions remain unanswered

He wants to know why Alex W was not searched when he went into the court. No one seems to have noticed that he was carrying a knife. "How can something like this happen in a court where people are supposed to be safe?" Khalil asks me.

Khalil also wants to know why, when El-Sherbini's husband went to her aid (and was himself attacked and stabbed by Alex W), a policeman shot him in the leg in the mistaken belief he was the assailant. "Why did the cop think the Muslim-looking man must be the killer?" asks Magdi.

The public response after the incident has been muted. It took days for German politicians to react and publicly condemn the act. Khalil asks: "What would happen if an Egyptian man would stab a German woman to death in court?"

Khalil is asking questions – and so are many other people. there latent anti-Muslim sentiment in Germany, perhaps in many western European countries? Where were the candlelight vigils for the victims? Where was the public outrage? Why is there no debate about possible political reactions?

The German government has since condemned the attack but maintains that its response was adequate. "We cannot tolerate right-wing extremism, hatred of foreigners or Islamophobia in our country," Thomas Steg, a spokesman for Chancellor Merkel, said at a press conference Wednesday. Meanwhile outrage at the killing has continued to grow in Egypt, to where Marwa El-Sherbini’s body has now returned.

Khalil is clear: "I believe this was an isolated incident that this has nothing to do with Germany as a whole." But he says the German government needs to answer the questions being asked - not least for its reputation in the Islamic world, for its reputation among Muslims in Germany and to ensure that Marwa El-Sherbini did not die in vain.

WEIMAR, Germany - We have been standing at the live position at the Buchenwald concentration camp all day commenting on the U.S. president’s visit there all day.

After the visit Barack Obama spoke words that soothed a lot of German souls, saying that he respected the Germans for looking their past in the eye, learning from it and trying to become champions of human rights as a result.

Being German I can say, there's a lot more truth in those words than many of us would admit in our everyday lives.

Sixty-four years after the end of World War II we like to think we are moving away from a feeling of "collective guilt" to one of "collective responsibility" to never allow anything similar to happen again, but that is only partially true.

Of course we still ask ourselves: "What would I have done back then?"

"Would I have supported the Nazis, even try to join them and make a career?"

"Would I have been with the resistance, given up everything and risk getting killed for a cause that didn’t seem to have many supporters in those days."

You can't give an honest answer to those questions. We would all like to believe we would have been brave and done the right thing, but we really cannot say for certain.

But the feelings show in German public opinion on a lot of matters.

Many Germans believe the country should not have an army, should not participate in military action outside German borders and that Germany should be a lot tougher on countries that abuse human rights.

I think in many ways we are still afraid of ourselves.

But today the U.S. president has told the Germans: “We respect how far you have come with the past you have.”

And even though this was a stage managed event like all presidential trips, it meant a lot those of us Germans who are disgusted by their nation's past – knowing they can never make up for it, but trying nonetheless.

BERLIN, Germany - I travel to Poland a lot. My wife is from Szeczcin, and we visit our in laws every few months. So from the beginning I was very excited to be given the task of reporting from all over the country for our special, “The New Poland.”

We traveled more than 2,000 miles though the country and visited Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk, Lodz, Wroclaw, Legnica, and Lubin.

What I learned was that most people around the world don’t appreciate enough the transformation that has been going on and the extent of the progress that has been made in Poland in the past 20 years.

In Gdansk, after finishing and interview with Archibishop Tadeusz Goclowski, we visited Galeria Baltyka - one of the biggest and most modern shopping malls in Europe.

Inside we could see first hand that Polish consumer confidence remains robust, even in the face of the international financial crisis. The shops and food court were full of people having a good time when in other countries retailers are struggling to make ends meet.

In Krakow, the picture was much the same. We were impressed by the Polish youth, with most young people perfectly fluent in English, well traveled, and ready and willing to explore and learn.

All of this was mixed with the hospitality and pride Poles are so well known for.

We got a tour of the town from a young photographer who showed us the sights that make Krakow so famous and the hip places not so many tourists see.

Culinary expert Robert Maklowicz agreed to give us a course in Polish cooking even though he had just returned from a long trip to Iceland the night before and we had not even given him any notice that we were coming.

I have never seen anyone who knows more about food than Robert, who gave us a virtual culinary tour of the world and gave us advice on where to eat in places like Italy, Thailand and of course Poland.

I am German, and I think many of us Western Europeans still see Poland as a country on its way to becoming “fully” European. That is wrong. The truth is that Poland is as Western and as European as any other country on this continent.

Poland is shaping the future of Europe and especially the young people we met showed us that it will play a leading role in European affairs and development.

Of course you cannot shake off the effects of 40 years of communist rule overnight. Poland still has quite a way to go to improve its infrastructure (anyone who has traveled the roads extensively will know what I mean). But that will be overcome, have no doubt.

BAGHDAD, Iraq – I don't think I have ever worked harder to get beat up. To do a story about Baghdad's best boxing gym, in the Adamiyah district, first, we had to get permission from the local "Awakening Council." The "Awakening Council" is a militia, allied with the United States that controls Adamiyah. When we got
to the area, armed gunmen were already waiting for us, some of them not older then 14 or 15, and they led us to the gym.

Farouq Chanchoon at his boxing gym.

"Ah, good to see you," Farouq Chanchoon says in very broken English. He's the head coach at the Adamiyah gym and a boxing legend in Iraq. The first thing he shows me is his collection of medals. "Bronze medal, world cup 1981," he keeps saying. Chanchoun is a former Iraqi Olympian. He fought in the 1976 games in Montreal, and in Moscow in 1980. He won the bronze at the boxing world cup in Montreal in 1981.

With all of Farouq's stories I didn't even notice, he already put on his boxing gloves and ushered me into the ring. For a 53 year old, he hasn't lost his speed or his eye, and I can feel the punches rain on my body and face as I try to escape and fight back. All the while, Farouq's youngest students, about 20 kids between the ages of 7 and 14 clap and chant. You can tell Farouq has boxing in his blood. The way he moves, the ring is his natural environment.

But to the kids here, he is more than a coach. In war-torn Baghdad, Farouq is like a father and guardian to many of those who train here. He teaches them discipline, respect for each other, no matter if they are Sunni or Shia. "My doors are open to anyone who is serious about boxing," Farouq
tells me later. "No matter if they are Sunni or Shia, anyone can come here."

Ali Hassan is serious about boxing. He's 21 years old, Iraq's welterweight champion and my next sparring partner. I can escape his punches for about a minute until I take a right hook to the jaw that stops me in my tracks. "Some day, I hope I can fight in international championships and win
gold and silver medals," Ali says, and judging the way he beat me up, I don't doubt he has what it takes.

Ali often leaves work early to come to the Adamiyah gym, but for a long time that was impossible. For decades, the gym was Iraq's premiere address for boxers, but after the fall of Saddam Hussein, violence engulfed the streets of the neighborhood, Al Qaeda took over, and the gym was shut. Much of the boxing equipment was looted, the old boxing ring was later torn apart by some of the local residents and used as building material. "I always kept training," Farouq says, but it was hard and dangerous.

Adamiyah is almost 100 per cent Sunni, but Shia fighters regularly make their way to the gym. Farouq says even during the worst of the sectarian strife in Baghdad, he still welcomed Shia boxers. "It has never made a difference to me," he says. When the gym was closed, they would train in other locations and some shia risked their lives to learn from him.

Now that violence is receding in Baghdad, and with Adamiyah under the control of the awakening council, the gym has reopened. About a dozen new punching bags line the ring and classes are full, especially with younger fighters. Farouq says he's proud of his achievement and believes that Iraq will make a comeback in international boxing.

"I think it will take at least four years," he tells me, "but then we will have world class fighters again. I have no doubt in my mind."

Until then, the young fighters look up at the old, fading photos of Farouq in his glory days, throwing punches at international tournaments. And many of them hope they can achieve the same.

AMSTETTEN, Austria - "We want to show the world that not all Amstetteners are bad people," Christian Dunkl says as he lights a candle in the pouring rain. About 200 people came to a candlelight vigil in the evening to show solidarity with the victims of what Austrians officials say is one of the worst crimes in their country's history.

Amstetten, a small town in Western Austria remains in shock after police discovered a local man, 73-year old Josef Fritzl was holding his own daughter as a sex slave in a dungeon underneath his house for 24 years. Elizabeth is now 42 years old and she claims her father raped and beat her on many occasions during her ordeal. Fathering seven children with her, one of which died shortly after birth and whose body Fritzl has admitted he burned in a furnace in the house.Gertrude Baumgarten can't conceal her outrage. "I only have a small pension," she tells me as we are sitting in her kitchen, "but I would spend my money to see him hang on a rope." Gertrude worked in the same company as Fritzl in Amstetten, but she says she almost never talked to him and never wanted to be in his presence. "He had such an arrogant posture," she says, "I just never wanted to be close to him."

But Gertrude was close to Fritzl's wife Rosemarie, who authorities say, never knew her husband was hiding their daughter in the cellar and sexually abusing her. "Rosemarie was always a sweet person," she says, "she did not know what was going on, she said her daughter had run away from home."

Fritzl took three of the six surviving children away from their mother, his daughter, and told his wife, Elizabeth, the alleged runaway had left them at the doorstep because she could not take care of them. Gertrude Baumgarten recalls the first time Rosemarie told her about finding a child. "She said Elizabeth had probably had the baby with a cult member and couldn't take care of if, and then she said: "What can we do, we have to take care of the child."

Verena Huber, a 14-year-old high school student, went to school with one of the children raised by Josef and Rosemarie Fritzl. Verena says 12-year-old Alexander seemed to have no clue about what was going on. "He always told us his mother was dead," she says, but describes Alexander as a happy and "normal" child.

Most people in Amstetten say that although Josef Fritzl was reclusive, there was never a reason to believe something was amiss. Karl Dallinger is in the Amstetten fire brigade. He says two of the children, Monika and Alexander, participated in the brigade's "youth days," where young people learn the basics of fighting fires and First-aid. "They were both always willing to learn," he says now, adding, "they were good kids, they seemed to be happy kids." And he adds their grandmother often came to fire brigade events with her grandchildren even helping to cook spaghetti there.

By almost all accounts, the Fritzl family was a normal part of the Amstetten community. That, it seems, is what most shocks people in this western Austrian town.