to the German 2nd Panzer Army in Oryol gave assurances that Kaminski's unit was "ready to fight the guerrillas actively" and to carry on a propaganda campaign against "Jewish Bolshevism" and Soviet partisans. Soon after that, the commander of 2nd Army Generaloberst Rudolf Schmidt appointed Kaminski as the mayor of the Korück 532 centered in the township of Lokot. On 19 July 1942, after the Commander of Army Group Centre, Field Marshal Günther von Kluge gave an official approval, the Lokot administration received some degree of autonomy and nominal self-rule under the supervision of major von Veltheim and colonel Rübsam. Kaminsky was appointed the Oberbürgermeister of the Autonomous Administration of Lokot (comprising eight raions) and the brigadier of the local militia. From June 1942, Kaminski's militia took part in a major security operation code-named Operation Vogelsang, as part of General Werner von Gilsa's Kampfgruppe (battle group) Gilsa II. Germans did not interfere in the Lokot Autonomy's affairs as long as their transports were kept safe, and the republic delivered the required food quotas to the Wehrmacht. Kaminski established Autonomy's court, jails, and newspapers. Collective farms were abolished, and a significant degree of free enterprise was permitted. Kaminski's speeches published in the region's newspapers emphasized that Nazi Germany and Russia "are the same." The schools (closed after the German invasion) reopened, and a radio station and some theater groups were established in Lokot, Dmitrovsk and Sevsk Newspapers published in the Lokot Autonomy were typical of all newspapers published on Nazi-occupied Russian territories, featuring articles claiming Judeo-Bolshevik crimes along with Nazi propaganda with the usual heavy dose of antisemitism. The Jewish population in the Autonomy was annihilated without German assistance: 223 Jews were shot in the township of Suzemka, and 39 at Navlya. In October 1942, Kaminski renamed Lokot township as the town of Voskoboinik. Streets in other townships of the Autonomy were also renamed. In the autumn of 1942, Kaminski ordered the compulsory draft into the militia of all non-disabled men. Its units were reinforced with the "volunteers" drafted from Soviet POWs at the nearest Nazi concentration camps. Due to the lack of uniforms and boots (some units were barefoot), the Germans provided Kaminski's brigade with used uniforms: these were sufficient for only four battalions. Kaminski ordered the gathering of Soviet tanks and armored cars abandoned in 1941 due to the lack of fuel or minor mechanical failures – by November