Electric lights were forbidden on Sunday, their Sabbath. No gas could be turned on, and his mother had to prepare the meals on Saturday.
Cor and his five siblings were forbidden to dance or go to the movies.
When Suijk and his father Jacob later visited Yad Vashem, they noticed a memorial to a righteous gentile from Holland.
Jacob Suijk, Cor's father, was a principal at junior high school and earned a meager salary.
Suijk is in Denver for Rachel's Challenge, a conference named for Columbine shooting victim Rachel Scott that imparts values of compassion and tolerance.