It was formed in the aftermath of the German invasion of the Soviet Union and fought on the Eastern Front in the Waffen SS alongside similar formations from other parts of German-occupied Western Europe.

When the Germans invaded in May 1940, several political parties in the Netherlands sympathized with the authoritarian and anti-democratic ideals of Nazi Germany.

The most important was the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging in Nederland, NSB), led by Anton Mussert, founded in 1931 on the example of the Nazi Party in Germany.

After the invasion of Poland in 1939, Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, sought to expand the Waffen-SS with "Germanic" volunteers from other countries.

Recruitment in the Netherlands was given an air of respectability by the support of Dutch General Staff officer Lieutenant-General Hendrik Seyffardt.

In January 1943, Dutch troops were heavily involved in defending against Soviet attempts to lift the siege at Leningrad.

One 19-year old Dutch gun crew leader, Gerardus Mooyman, destroyed 23 Russian tanks with his Pak 40 in about a month of fighting.

In September 1943, the Brigade was sent to the Independent State of Croatia (Yugoslavia) to join SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner's III SS Panzer Corps currently forming in the area.

[citation needed] On 25 December 1943, the brigade was transferred, along with Steiner's SS Corps, to Oranienbaum, Russia in Army Group North's sector.

The Soviet Krasnoye Selo–Ropsha Offensive cut through the weak infantry units formed out of the 9th and 10th Luftwaffe Field Divisions.

The unit, alongside the SS Division Nordland, soon retreated to avoid encirclement by General Leonid A. Govorov's Leningrad Front.

On 26 January 1945, the brigade received orders to evacuate the pocket by sea and report to the Swinemünde-Stettin area to participate in the defence of the Oder line.