Kārlis Pūķis worked in a turf factory near Aizpute in Latvia. In 1941 he became friends with several Jews who performed forced labor in the factory. In 1943 Pūķis decided to help the Jewish doctor Jossel Getz to escape from the forced labor camp.
Jossel Getz was able to escape along with three other men at the end of 1943. Pūķis took the escaped men to his mother-in-law Ieva Dzene in Aizpute, who hid them in the attic above her home. Later, Dzene’s daughter Emīlija Šustere and her husband Gerhards hid the Jewish men on their farm.
A neighbor of the Šusters family discovered the men one night and reported them to the local police. Emīlija and Gerhards Šusters, Ieva Dzene, the brothers Kārlis and Jānis Pūķis, and their wives were arrested as a result.
The four men managed to escape, but died later in unclear circumstances. Kārlis Pūķis and other family members were deported to Stutthof concentration camp for helping them. Kārlis Pūķis died during his imprisonment.
Kārlis Pūķis was honored posthumously as Righteous Among the Nations by the Israeli Holocaust memorial center Yad Vashem in 1999.