A small group of mourners gathered in an austere, icy-cold church in East Berlin on Friday morning, many still wrapped in their winter coats and woollen hats. A mother tried to catch a toddler tottering down the aisle, proudly clutching a bible, as Bishop Anba Damian told the congregation, mostly Coptic Christians and a small Catholic delegation, that it was hard to find the right words in the face of such violence and hatred. "I pray that the violence may end", the head of Germany's Coptic Church said. "My heart bleeds."

He was referring to a group of 21 Coptic Christians who were brutally murdered in Libya. On Sunday Libyan militants linked to the self-proclaimed "Islamic State" terrorist group released a video which purportedly showed the mass beheading of the Egyptians who had been held hostage for more than a month. The video showed several handcuffed hostages in orange jumpsuits being beheaded by militants on a beach.

"We were like brothers"

One of the victims was 24-year old Gaber Muneer Adli, "a friendly, lively man, who was very devout", said his cousin, Jossef Gerges, a shy, polite 24-year old wrapped in a thick woolly scarf. Around him, the other members of the congregation were filing out for a communal meal as an alter boy carefully pulled a curtain across the gold-plated altar.

Jossef's eyes filled with tears as he recalled their shared childhood, growing up in the same house as Gaber. "We were like brothers", he said, staring down at his hands, his voice barely audible.

Jossef, who moved to Berlin just over a year ago, said the last time he had talked to his cousin was some three months ago. Gaber had assured him that everything was fine in the war-torn country, which is increasingly sliding into anarchy as militias and militants hold sway. "He said not to worry, that everything seemed normal.He said he was safe and that he was going to leave Libya as soon as he finished his job."

But Gaber, who made a living working on construction sites and was as yet unmarried, never made it home to Egypt. Instead, he was dragged off the bus that was supposed to take him back to his family. "He managed to call his family while he was being kidnapped. He told them: We're being kidnapped by extremists."

Back in Egypt, his relatives made desperate last-minute attempts to save him, Jossef said, appealing to the, as he says, largely unresponsive Egyptian authorities, staging protests and praying. "I called my family every day", apart from that, he said, there was little he could do but pray for his cousin.

"I felt numb"

But it was all to no avail: "I was in so much shock, I felt numb", Jossef whispered, recalling last Sunday when the video was released by a group calling itself "Tripoli Province of the Islamic State." He started watching the video, Jossef said, but, after a few seconds, had to stop. "It was just too terrible, so unimaginably cruel." Again, he has to fight back tears: He just couldn't watch his cousin being murdered.

Jossef, who said he fled Egypt after members of the Muslim Brotherhood burned down his carpenter's workshop, no longer feels safe in Berlin either. He pointed to an increasing number of would-be German jihadists who have left the country to join the extremists' in Syria and Iraq."They're being brainwashed, it's very frightening", he said, as the five or six young men who had gathered round to listen to the interview nodded and muttered their agreement.

Ever since his cousin was kidnapped, he could no longer sleep properly, he said. "I think of my cousin all the time. I miss him so much." But, he added with a wisp of a smile that he was proud that his cousin died a martyr: "I'm sure he's in heaven now."