| Zusammenfassung: | Typically, discussions of a purportedly 'clean Wehrmacht' — and its counterpart, the 'barbarization of warfare' concept — have centered upon developments in wartime Poland and the western reaches of the Soviet Union. However, the situation in Western Europe merits further analysis, if only because the notion of an apolitical, upright Wehrmacht existed in the Netherlands, too. Drawing upon situation reports generated by the Netherlands' military occupiers, this article examines both the Wehrmacht's attempts to avoid the ideological excesses of its civilian counterparts and the progressive deterioration of the army's situation in this western corner of the nazi New Order. Ultimately, mounting physical privations, growing popular hostility, and the nazi regime's demand for co-operation in enforcing anti-Jewish measures would undo the military's attempt to remain out of the fray of politics. As in Eastern Europe, the idea of a 'clean Wehrmacht' in the Netherlands would prove more myth than reality.
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