RESUMO
The Brazilian radiologist Manoel de Abreu (1892 - 1962) was the first who succeeded in developing an apparatus suitable for mass radiography of the chest in the fight against tuberculosis. Within a few years, many countries had started to use mass radiography. The German professor Hans Holfelder (1891 - 1944) improved the apparatus and made a transportable version to be used in special buses and in assembly halls. When Germany attacked Norway in April 1940, the Chief Tuberculosis Inspector Otto Galtung (1904 - 81), was making plans for a nation-wide screening programme with mass radiography. He was fired by the Nazis who continued his work and started screening in 1943. The first mass radiography in Norway was carried out in Bergen in September 1940. Almost 11 000 pupils and teachers from all schools in Bergen were examined under the management of Holfelder, then an SS-Standartenführer (colonel) and radiologist in the occupation force. The screening was performed in co-operation with the municipal health authority who bought the apparatus in spring 1941.