Burich Kelmanof, born in 1882 in Odessa as son of Kalman Chasler and Enna Lebo, arrived 7 March 1906 in Rotterdam and moved in with his brother Jankel Chasler. Jankel came already to Rotterdam in 1899 and was married in 1903 there to Vrouwtje van der Borg from Rotterdam and lived at Hofdijk 45. Burich Kelmanof was registered as bookprinter but later he was als working as dealer in ship items and broker.
In 1912 also his sister Ruchel arrived in Rotterdam. At first she lived in with her brother Jankel but in 1913 she moved to her brother Burich Kelmanof. On 15 March 1914, ten days before her brother got married, she moved to the address of Isac Dayles and his wife Hana Schösler in Rotterdam and from there she married in June 1914 to David Bertchenko from Smerinka in Russia. Ruchel and David had a son in 1915 and emigrated in 1916 to New York.
On 12 March 1914, Burich Kelmanof Chasler married Mietje van Dam from Dordrecht, a daughter of Godschalk van Dam and Esther Coenraad. The couple Chasler-van Dam had three children, namely Sophie in 1914 and the twin Elsa and Betsie in 1919. The twin however died just after birth; their daughter Sophie and they themselves were killed in the Shoah.
The Chasler family, then living at Haagsestraat 39 at Scheveningen, was registered on 17 September 1942 in Camp Westerbork. They stayed there till 28 September, the day they were deported to Auschwitz where they all were killed immediately upon arrival there on 1 October 1942.
City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration cards of Jankel Chasler and Burich Kelmanof Chasler; website www.wiewaswie; Index of marriages of Rotterdam re Mietje van Dam and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Burich Kelmanof Chasler, Mietje Chasler-van Dam and Sophie Chasler.