diff --git a/git-merge-recursive.py b/git-merge-recursive.py
index d7d36aa7d1..37258ad774 100755
--- a/git-merge-recursive.py
+++ b/git-merge-recursive.py
@@ -293,6 +293,10 @@ def removeFile(clean, path):
         except OSError, e:
             if e.errno != errno.ENOENT and e.errno != errno.EISDIR:
                 raise
+        try:
+            os.removedirs(os.path.dirname(path))
+        except:
+            pass
 
 def uniquePath(path, branch):
     def fileExists(path):