During the war, the station and Piazzale Roma become two fundamental points because they were the only entry and exit point of the city. Leaving Venice by boat was not possible, because the lagoon was guarded by Fascists and Germans with a kind of coastal control police and allied fighter bombers, from ’43 to ’45 (period in which the Resistance fights) had absolute control of the air spaces above all northern Italy, with the order to strike anyone, without distinction.
The station also became an important point because the train was the most-used means of transport and many railway workers risked and sacrificed their lives with sabotage actions.
Platform 1 Plaque dedicated to Francesco Benvenuti, a Venetian railway worker engaged in the struggle of the people, was killed in combat on April 28, 1945, during one of the last clashes against German troops during the Venetian insurrection.
Platform 8 Plaque in memory of the 14 railway workers of Veneto who died during the War of Liberation. The railway workers played an important role in the sabotage of convoys bound for Germany and in assisting the Italian soldiers captured by the Germans after 8 September 1943.
Platform 14 Plaque in memory of Piero Favretti, catholic station master and partisan, killed on the night between 7 and 8 July 1944, during a partisan reprisal in response to the killing of three anti-fascist soldiers, carried out by a group of soldiers of the Republican National Guard. Five people were killed and one was seriously injured in the reprisal. Of the victims, five were anti-fascists and only Pietro Favretti is engaged in the resistance struggle. A plaque is also dedicated to him in front of his house, named after a calle and the forecourt of Mestre station.
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